Does anyone know what most Graphic Designers / Senior Designers with ~4 years experience are making right now? Hard to gauge how the base salaries have changed in the last few years.

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Depends on location and type of company. I find tech/startup to pay the best so that’s my focus.

I was getting paid 80k at a tech startup which I thought was very low - just secured a new job at a well established tech startup paying 130k after receiving an offer from a marketing agency for 105k.

All jobs are remote. You can see these salaries are all over the place.

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I got into tech by starting in a beginner:intermediate position living in a large city (Boston)

It does depend on location, years of experience, and industry as well as one’s proven ability. I started 1 year out college making around 40k and 10 years later im at 120k. At about year 4 I was at about 60k to put into perspective.

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I specialize in brand identity and visual design for tech companies.

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It is very tricky. It all depends on the type of company you want to work for. I might get a great salary with a smaller company and a “standard” one with a larger company. You should be able to find some pretty good numbers out there on the web.

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Tech companies tend to pay more, whereas packaged goods and status brands (eg fashion, apparel, jewelry, retail) tend to pay less. Smaller agencies can sometimes be on lower end too. Less clients = lower budgets.

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Female mid-level designer, small independent agency in the south, started right out of school, been here 5 years, started entry level at $42k and currently at $72k

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Given how diverse the field is you'll need to be more specific. Graphic Designer is a generalist term and usually associated with print design. The average/median for that title is among the lowest in the field across much of the US between 50k - 70k

The highest paying are in UI, UX, and Product Design. If you're working in the mobile space for a tech company you can find jobs in the 90s to 6 figures as a Senior Designer (location dependent) pretty easily.

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Agree. And quality of work is much important than YoE, IMHO.

Change to product design or UX design. Those positions are like 150K to 300K+.

likesmart

Amazon L5 Graphic Designer

Location: Seattle, Austin, NYC, ATL
Base: $132K
Cash: $48k/$36k
RSU: ~$110k standard vesting
A virtual person could also get this if they have a kickass portfolio.

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I would say at least 5 years. 5 to 10+ YOE is a typical L5 person. Your portfolio is the key with the design jobs. If you have a really good portfolio, you could ask for and possibly get more. Most folks get hired on as an L5 at Amazon/AWS.

I'm a female senior designer with ~6 years of experience making 60k right now.

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Girl same!

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It depends where you’re located but I’m guessing $50k -$70k is a fair range. Glassdoor salary calculator is a great resource.

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Small city in Nevada, we don’t have a great creative market here, but after a handful of years working through various art/design roles at my company, I finally got bumped up to $57k after raises and promotions (waiting for a final raise to $59k)

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Midwest graphic designer, 5+ years of experience with state government, ~$58k.

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Im a senior graphic designer, generalist, about 4.5 yrs experience making 120k at an established ad agency in NYC

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4 years ToE. Anywhere from 60k to 180k. Jumping at the right time is key 🔑

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Sorry, typo: “look for moments when the company/brand you’re working for…”

— or in my case… when you’re bored haha

I live in the NYC metro area and have 16 years of experience now as a multi-faceted graphic designer. For context: I started as a graphic designer and specialized in marketing/print for the first 12 years. My salary during that time greatly depended on the company I was working for but left that world at $80k working for a boutique real estate firm (not including freelancing on the side which had me over the $100k mark)

From year 12 on I segued into UX. My first role paid $100k starting out. 1 year after I was making $120k at a new company but had a 4 hour round trip commute so left. I then got a full time contract position that turned 100% remote when covid hit making $115k. Left that after a year and a half and now am at $130k (I’ve been offered more but please know in this industry it is NOT all about money… company culture and work/life balance is just as crucial as fair pay!!).

I do still freelance on the side as well and do that entirely in my personal time because I love what I do so much. I’ve done that my entire 16 years and am at a point of being very picky on who/what kind of client I will work with. That extra income brings in on average for me now an additional $80-100k per year providing all my years of experience across every facet of design and marketing to my clients (including website design and development).

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2.5 years of experience making $52K in California

As everyone else said, it really varies. Here are a few data points for you from my very recent experience. I'm mid level, looking to jump to senior soon, with 5 ish years experience. Started out in Boston but moved away from the city a year ago and now fully remote.


Current role (old tech/internet/med-large company): started at 60k, salary adjustment and raises brought me to 90k. Not including RSUs and bonus.

Newly accepted role (small to mid-sized startup): 95k, not including stock options.

A recent offer (Media/tech): 80k, 5k sign on. No bonus info/no stock.

A recent role I considered in my local (mid-sized) city at a university: 54k, no bonus info

Probably depends on location. I’m 5 years with a large company making 60k with benefits + bonus (but I’m in the South)

Currently almost 2 years out of school but had a lot of internships (5) so feel I have more like 4 years of experience if you count that. I’m in Boston in commercial real estate development making 65k honestly feeling like I low balled myself after hearing friends more in the 80k range with similar experience

6 years / NYC / 130K

It’s hard to say until check portfolio and resume. Some people work 10 years and not the best designer I see, some people work 5 years and portfolio and experience,knowledge are better than the 10th are experience designer.

I think the pay also depend on how good you are which not only depend on experience years.

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