The average salary for a designer depends on where he or she is located and which field they specialize in. As the following Visual Capitalist infographic shows, some of the highest paying industries are not design-heavy at all.
The average salary for a designer is $53,000 per year.
Average salary for a designer
It’s a common question among designers: how much do graphic designers make? It’s also a tough one to answer, since there are so many variables at play. The good news is that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks data like this and they’ve recently released new information on the average salary for graphic designers.
The median wage for graphic designers in May 2018 was $50,370, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The median wage for graphic designers in May 2018 was $50,370, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median wage is the middle value of all the wages paid out to graphic designers in May 2018—it’s not an average or mean wage, which would be higher than the median because it includes more high-earning outliers.
The mean wage is defined as being equal to the sum of all wages divided by total number of workers; this method can potentially give a false impression that people at either end of a spectrum are earning more than they actually do when compared with those who are closer to average income levels. Because there are so many outliers in data sets like these (i.e., very high or low earners), they tend not to represent reality very well despite being technically correct measures based on total numbers alone; this is why economists prefer using medians instead when analyzing trends across groups where individual differences matter less than overall patterns do during analysis periods like monthly reporting periods used by BLS (whereas means can be useful for understanding weekly patterns). For example purposes only, if we took all 300 jobs listed under “Graphic Designers” from our previous query and plotted them according *only* -to each individual worker’s salary amount rather than generating averages together first (like
The bottom 10 percent of graphic designers made less than $27,130 a year, and the top 10 percent earned more than $86,760 a year.
The bottom 10 percent of graphic designers earned less than $27,130 a year, while the top 10 percent earned more than $86,760 a year. The median income was $50,370 a year.
Graphic designer salaries vary across the country.
It’s important to note that the average salary for a graphic designer varies across the country. The South tends to pay more, and the West tends to pay less. In general, designers in the Northeast earn more than those in other regions of the country.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that these figures are only averages. If you’re just starting out as a graphic designer, your salary may be lower than this range until you gain enough experience and qualify for higher positions within your company or agency.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a job as a graphic designer, you have options. There are many places to look and it will depend on where you live. But don’t worry, the average salary is still quite good. If you want to become a designer but aren’t sure if it’s right for you, then I suggest getting some experience in this field first. Try working at an agency or doing freelance work before taking the leap into full-time employment as your own boss!
