On July 23, 2020, Generation PR created an anonymous survey to capture salary information from Canadian communications and marketing professionals in order to create a pay transparency spreadsheet.
To keep the survey results timely and relevant, we asked respondents to share their most recent salary information for positions they held in 2020. Since we started the survey, we have collected over 300 responses. The survey was closed on December 31, 2020.
This is the information we asked respondents to submit:
- Job title
- Location (city, region or province)
- Salary
- Years of experience
- Employment status (optional)
- Workplace industry (optional)
- Number of employees at the workplace (optional)
- Starting salary at the current position (optional)
- What year they started at the workplace (optional)
- Benefits (optional)
- Highest educational qualification (optional)
- Gender (optional)
- Race (optional)
- Sexual orientation (optional)
We believe everyone benefits when we openly share the pay and benefits we receive from our employer. Industry standards for wages in such complex and varied professions such as communications and marketing do not exist. For that reason, we all need and deserve more clarity on the issue.
Unfortunately, many people undervalue themselves and do not know how much they should be paid. There are also wage gaps among groups of people doing the same work and that is not acceptable. Only by embracing pay transparency can we start to narrow these gaps and also motivate ourselves to seek more equitable pay, and motivate our employers to provide it.
This pay transparency spreadsheet exists to help you understand what you should expect and ask for when it comes to your pay. Please share it with your network and contribute to the spreadsheet.
Breaking down the results of the survey
We wanted to take a closer look at the data (big shout-out to Nat Cooper for creating some beautiful pivot tables) to make it easier for those who don’t want to skim through a pretty big spreadsheet.
Keep in mind the majority of responses came from professionals based in Toronto, Ontario who identified themselves as women. We know pay can differ across cities and gender lines, but at the same time, so many opportunities are found in Toronto and women make up a substantial part of this industry.
Most common job titles
There was an array of job titles provided, which comes as no surprise. And we know job titles aren’t always the most honest reflection of a person’s role. That being said these were the most common job titles provided (in order):
- Marketing Coordinator
- Account Coordinator
- Marketing Manager
- Communications Coordinator
- Social Media Manager
Average salaries for most common job titles
These were the average salaries for the most common job titles:
- Marketing Coordinator: $46,238
- Account Coordinator: $41,953
- Marketing Manager: $65,575
- Communications Coordinator: $45,807
- Social Media Manager: $54,091
Regrettably, the lowest salary recorded in the survey was $0.00 for an unpaid internship. The highest salary recorded in the survey was $225,000/year for a Creative Director role based in Toronto.
Common workplaces
So, where are communications and marketing professionals typically employed? We asked respondents to share which industry their workplace falls under (this was optional to answer but most people did).
These were the most common responses:
- Agency (31% of respondents)
- Non-profit (9% of respondents)
- Technology (7% of respondents)
- Government (6% of respondents)
- Entertainment (5% of respondents)
Just to note: respondents came from all kinds of agencies: PR, digital, advertising, etc.
Education
The question regarding one’s education was optional, though many did answer. No surprise, the majority of respondents reported they held a bachelor’s degree (at least).
What did differ among candidates was whether they pursued additional schooling, perhaps in an attempt to enter their respective industries.
Interesting points regarding education:
- 23% of respondents held a post-graduate certificate
- 12% of respondents completed a master’s program
The survey has certainly more data to parse through than we’ve provided here, but it is also limited in its scope. 300+ responses are certainly great, but still misses many people who work in these industries so it is hard to make any sturdy conclusions.
If we conduct a future survey (or someone else does!), we hope it will garner even more responses and allow for a deeper examination of fair pay in these industries.
