About one-third of design and communications professionals feel their salaries are below industry standard, according to a new Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) survey.

The RGD presented the results of its 11th national survey of salaries and billing practices in the Canadian communication design industry. The group garnered feedback from 3,343 graphic design and related communications professionals nationally, from April to August, spanning agency, in-house and independent practitioners.

According to the results, 39% of agency and 34% of in-house designers report salaries they feel are below industry standards.

The survey reveals median salaries across most positions have increased from last year, with the exception being UX designers reporting a 3% decrease. Educators reported seeing the largest increase at 25%, followed by production managers (a 20% increase) and junior designers (a 14% increase).

However, median salary moves are not equally distributed, with BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ being less than that of counterparts, which is similar to last year’s survey results.

RGD data reveals that the greatest median salary discrepancy was was $8,500 between BIPOC design and creative services managers and the survey’s male respondents, generally. The gap still decreased from 10% to 2.5% between 2021 and 2022, with the same number of respondents in both years.

The median salary gulf between BIPOC and overall male respondents was $5,000 for senior graphic designers, $3800 for art directors and $3,000 for graphic designers.

LGBTQ2S+ respondents also continue to earn less than cisgender, heterosexual respondents, with the largest pay gap for design/creative services managers (25%), and art directors (17%).

Creative agency designers

RGD numbers reveal that 47% of survey respondents report no change in the number of designers working for their agencies, while 23% reported that their design department shrank, up 5% from 2021/2022. Only 26% said that their departments grew, down 9% from 2021/2022.

Agency employees feel slightly better compensated than in the last report, as 10% feel that their salaries are above industry standard, a 3% increase from 2021/2022. Meanwhile, 49% feel that their salaries are about industry standard, a 2% increase from 2021/2022. and 39% feel that their salaries are below industry standard, a 5% decrease from 2021/2022.

In-house designers

There were more changes to in-house departments noted in this report than in 2021/2022. 20% indicated that their department shrank, compared to only 13% who said the same in the last report. Department growth has also stagnated, with 27% reporting that their departments grew, down from 29% in 2021/2022.

The numbers reveal that 49% of in-house designers feel that their salaries are about industry standard, which is just slightly more (2%) than in 2021/2022. However, more in-house designers (34%) feel that they are underpaid than paid above industry standard (15%).

Freelancers/solo designers

Email (53%) and connections (30%) are the most common ways solo designers sought out new work. When it comes to pricing work, the report notes that solo designers seem to be moving away from hourly rates in favour of project-based pricing. RGD data reveals 68% use the latter, while 60% noted using the former. Pricing based on the client’s budget (24%) and value-based pricing (23%) are also used.