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This is a fantastic starting salary. They are being entitled or are terrible at negotiating
A lot of people are talking about their own starting salaries 5+ years ago, and while 50k seems a lot to me (I started on 30k 8 years ago in Toronto with a masters and 6 months of interning experience) I think we should be challenging our own instinct to accept so little.
If we’re expected to give our jobs the majority of our time and energy, we should at the very least be able to comfortably live on our salaries. Industry salaries have barely shifted in Toronto in the past decade. And for context, in 2012, you could rent an entire one bed for $800 CAD, now you’d be lucky to pay under $2k. I don’t blame people starting out for their complete apathy on wages. It’s always seemed absurd to me that I was expected to struggle through the first 5 years of my career in order to eventually make a liveable wage.
Preach! Be the difference and make it better for those who follow.
But for real. 50k CAD is 39k USD. That’s low.
Canadian wages are much lower because of consumer/business ratio. There's only 39 million people v 331 million in US.
omg i wish i had been paid $50k as an account COORDINATOR in new york 😭😭
Same! I started at $15/hr $31,000 in NY 😭
Rising Star
That's a massive salary for an entry level account person in Toronto.
Pro
That’s crazy. I have been getting paid 50k for jr in NYC.
Pretty sure my starting salary was 32k. Your offer was more than fair.
50k CAD is like $16k USD right?
Pro
Ehhh 39k is not much
Wow, offering that much money to an intern with almost no experience is super generous... also knowing there are companies out there that pay that much has me second guessing most of my life choices
I don't think $50k is low for the industry but if they're comparing against different industries, I can see why it feels like a slap in the face. For context, I also started as an account person at $33k in 2017. I had actually had internship & co-op experience, plus 1 year working as a marketing coordinator post graduation. I knew the starting salaries for advertising were low. But I also came from a business undergrad where some of my friends' starting salaries were $60-80k. While they were able to afford living independently, I couldn't even start thinking about that until 2020 (and we all know what happened then). So while I was mentally prepared for the $33k, it still didn't feel great.
Honestly, if the industry doesn't figure something else out soon, those that are left in it will have to deal with the fact that no one wants to fill empty positions. Why would they, when they could work a less demanding job client or vendor side and make a higher salary? Given the cost of living in Toronto these days, I don't blame anyone for feeling like $50k isn't enough because it isn't. This intern might have chosen the wrong industry to get paid more for an entry level job, but in principle I sympathize with their desire for more pay.
I can sympathize but unfortunately $50k is pretty reflective of the market value of an account coordinator.
Maybe there are less demanding client roles that pay higher entry-level salaries but the jobs my friends had out of school that paid more (software dev, financial analyst) typically required far greater technical skills.
The problem is advertising, and marketing in general, has marginalized itself by getting further and further disconnected from ROI. That means the “business” roles we hire for (like account coordinators) require far fewer hard analytic skills. It’s the same in strategy, I neither get paid like a management consultant nor am expected to deliver the kind of analysis of a management consultant.
My starting salary in Toronto was $32k and that was 8 years ago. The Bank of Canada inflation calculator says equivalent would be $39k now.
Even accounting for the fact that the Toronto housing market has outpaced Canada, and I don’t fully trust the BoC inflation numbers, 50k is still decent.
If they just want to negotiate I say have at it, go find your true value (might be lower than you think heading into a recession but who knows!).
But acting entitled is only barely tolerated if you’re extremely good at your job, from an account coordinator its ridiculous.
Lol 50K Canadian is probably closer to 60-70K in NY or LA. we get paid less since we don’t have to pay out of pocket for healthcare.
But in all seriousness 50K for entry-level is strong - even if cost of living in Toronto makes that low.
$50k in reality is not a livable wage, especially in Toronto or Vancouver, however $50k is more than is offered for an assistant role in Vancouver.
I was proud for getting $38k with 3 years of internship experience
Holy crap! That’s huge, especially with such limited experience. They’re insane. My starting salary was $35k in Detroit circa 2018.
My staring salary in Toronto was 35k in 2017 soooo.
Umm I was making $50k as a senior AE with 4 years of experience at a large network agency in Toronto before I left for AS role in 2021. They are being a lil ridiculous. Yes it’s not enough to live on comfortably in Toronto but that’s more than generous for the first full time role
Low. And just because half the people here are saying they were paid less when they started might just mean they were bad at asking for more.
wowie i can’t even land an internship, I can’t imagine being offered 50k with no prior experience.
I make 40k as an associate at OMD la but have gotten 65k-75k offers from other agency’s. Thinking of moving since 40k is nothing in LA.
My starting salary in the industry was $42k. 50 would’ve been a dream n
65k for entry level NY