Hey copywriters. Feeling nostalgic tonight. Wanna hear this sad fact? GPT and I have the most interesting conversations.

• If you compare the inflation-adjusted salaries, a copywriter in the 1960s making $25,000 (equivalent to $235,000 today) could have a 2-3 times greater purchasing power than a modern copywriter making around $75,000 to $100,000 today.

likefunnyupliftinghelpful
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I know I was making 150,000 as an ACD in Boston in 2000. That’s the equivalent of about 270,000 today. Know any ACDs making 270,000? ACDs are still making closer to 150,000. Twenty-five years later. It’s the same for every position in advertising. Except the C-suite.

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Man that hurts. I make 150.

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The average income for a family in 1960 was $5600, so I highly doubt a mid level copywriter bagged $25k a year.

likesmart

Yeah, this post is what you get when you start talking to ChatGPT like it knows literally anything

likesmart

That can’t possibly be true. Is it???

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Omg

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Yeah the salary for the 1960s is not accurate 🤣

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Peggy Olson made $19,000 as a copywriter.

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Lady CW here. I made $30K as a Jr. in 1996, and am mad they were making $25k in the 1960's.

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I made $30k as a junior art director in 2015 so the trend might be real 😭

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Mad Men is well researched so I’d start there when looking at salaries of the time.

Peggy makes $40/week as a junior copywriter. Using a Federal Reserve calculator, that’s $22k annual salary in today’s pay.

Pete was making $75/week as an account executive. That’s about $42k in today’s money.

Don Draper was making $30k (then was offered $35k from McCann and was countered with a cool $45k). Mind you, this is before the times of Group/Executive CD and Chief Creative Officer roles. That’s $320->$372k->$478k (a hell of a counter). These salaries are commensurate with high level ECDs/CCOs in New York today, which is really what he was at Sterling Cooper.

When I started as a junior copywriter 10 years ago, I was making $46k. That’s about $62k in today’s pay, which is on the low end of a junior copywriter’s salary range these days.

If anything, junior salaries have scaled up and more senior roles have stayed the same.

Now the big differences are:
- markets are more volatile and layoffs far more frequent
- some things have hyperinflated beyond this calculator average (like rent and groceries). Realtor.com says Pete’s 1BR (pre marital) apartment would have been 100-150/month. At $150, his rent would have been $1600 in today’s costs, which is certainly less than a 1BR in NYC these days.
- they got bonuses (instead of shareholders skimming off the top)
- you could actually work in this industry well into your 50s/60s like Sterling and Cooper. Nowadays you need to save aggressively, brace for obsolescence and pivot late in the career.

helpful

$8-12K would be more like it for mid-60s.

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