Sunday, June 14, 2009

AIGA Aquent Survey of Design Salaries | 2009

More than 9,000 designers nationwide completed an annual salary survey.

Billed as "the most comprehensive annual survey of compensation data for the communication design profession in the United States," the survey was a joint effort between the following:

  • AIGA | the professional association for design
  • Aquent | the talent agency for marketers and designers
Here is a summary of the findings.

Boston Salaries

Median salaries for design professionals in Boston exceeded the national average by a range of between $2,000 and $8,000. Here are the Boston median salaries for select job titles:

  • Entry-level designer | $40,000
  • Print production artist | $47,500
  • Designer | $47,000
  • Web designer | $60,000
  • Senior designer | $65,000

Relatively few Web developers and programmers belong to the organizations that were used in the survey sample. Therefore, salaries for Boston could not be provided with statistical accuracy. Here are the national median average salaries for these job titles:

  • Web programmer/developer (back end) | $62,400
  • Web developer (front end) | $65,000

It would not be unusual for these median salaries to be higher in the Boston metro area.

Definitions are provided for these and other job titles at the AIGA website.

Advice from Design Leaders

Ten design professionals from across the country were asked to share their advice on surviving during challenging economic times. One quote was a headline grabber.

"Be smart and strategic—or else deliver pizzas"

Here are the 10 design leaders along with their LinkedIn profiles:

Access Advice from Professional Designers at the AIGA website.

National Survey Results

Salary results are available for 31 cities and nine regions of the United States at the AIGA | Aquent Survey of Design Salaries website. Simply access the Salary Calculator to review the compensation data for 15 design-related positions in your part of the country. You can also download a FREE 48-page summary of the survey findings.

Additional Surveys

Here are additional salary surveys and guides that have been summarized in Beantown Web in the past nine months:

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