Salaries across the marketing, design, and technology industry are still growing overall but some roles in high demand during the pandemic may have to make do with smaller pay days, according to work solutions company Aquent's 2024 Australian Salary Guide.
The guide analysed 6,438 salaries and found that salaries which skyrocketed due to talent shortages may be facing a correction due to the change in market conditions in favour of employers.
Aquent has seen falling salaries for creative directors, CX designers, senior UX designers, marketing managers, content producers and eCommerce managers.
There has also been double-digit growth for marketing directors, UI designers, digital producers, copywriters and front end developers.
With flat or nearly flat salaries for account managers, design directors, service designers, UX designers, heads of marketing and senior copywriters.
Specifically, with the advancement of generative AI and immersive technologies, Aquent’s data suggests the future-facing roles set to shape the job market are in design, engineering and operations, and demand for many of these roles has grown by more than 20% internationally in the last year.
These roles include: concept artist (median salary: $99,543), AR / XR / VR engineer (median salary: $179,460), language model product manager (median salary: $168,899) and AI content moderator/auditor (median salary: $95,546).
John H. Chuang, founder and CEO of Aquent, said the workplace has been rapidly evolving—from where and how we work, to the technology we use, and even the roles themselves.
“In Australia, our comprehensive review reveals both the progress that the industry is making and the work left to do," Chuang said.
"We must use this guide to build a roadmap for a thriving, innovative, and inclusive marketing, design, and technology world.”
Gender pay gap persists
On average, the industry gender pay gap remains the same with men were paid 16% more than women in 2023 and 2022.
This pay gap is slightly narrower than Australia’s national average base salary gender pay gap for 2022-2023 which was 17.2% according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
This year, men received significantly more pay than women in some of the following roles: head of digital (11.1%), CX lead (28.6%), senior UX researcher (17.9%), studio manager (12.5%), marketing director (33.3%), campaign manager (22.4%) and data analyst (15.8%).
Conversely, women are paid more in some of the following roles: service designer (9.1%), senior UI designer (12.8%), digital marketing manager (3.3%), digital marketing specialist (7.5%), CRM marketing manager (11.3%), performance marketing specialist (21.6%), PR and communications manager (11.2%), content producer (7.8%) and front end developer (16.7%).
Monique Richards, managing director of Aquent Australia, said these findings aren’t what the team hopes to see and represent an opportunity for improvement.
"Gender pay parity is a must. This is not just about creating an inclusive and equitable workplace—a worthy goal in its own right. It’s also about creating higher-performing teams,” Richards said.
“Research has shown that teams with greater gender diversity perform better. It should go without saying that high-performing employees in the same role should be paid equally, regardless of their gender or work location.”
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