Senior Designer pay

nicwscott

New Member
Hi all,
I work in a studio of 9 creatives, I work in the Branding team. Last year our team, which at the time had a team leader, where all given title change from mid weight designer to 'senior designer' but NO pay increase , to reflect this new title (that I know of)!

At the end of last year (2015) our team leader, handed in his notice and subsequently everyone was given a £1000 pa pay increase beginning this year. I'm currently on £23,600 pa and have been doing some research into what I should be on. The digital and video guys are understandably on more and I have suspicions, that not everyone in our team are being paid equally!

My question is; should I ask for a suitable pay increase to reflect my job title, at my Appraisal this year?
 
I think there are a few salary surveys out there but many you need to register on a site to access them but I found one you don't have to.
According to that the average Senior Designer pay in 2015 is 50k (45-55k range).

Not ure if that's a fancy London wage though.
Many of the ones in the north are around the 35k mark from what I've seen.
 
If you do the sums you're on a little over £11 per hour which is lower than what most of us would expect a 'senior designer' to be on.

Sum:
23600/52 (I've included paid holiday periods) = £453.85 per week
453.85/40hrs (assuming average uk week) = £11.35 per hour

If you end up doing more than 40 hours it's even worse
 
I've seen plenty of (out of London) grad posts around the 20-22k mark.

Not saying yours is particularly low @nikwscott.

I left a role a couple of years ago (thank f@ck) that I had to take when my OH went back to college.
I was a 'Senior' Designer/Illustrator and I was earning the princely sum of 19k p.a. that I had to barter up from 17k at the age of 44 having 26 years experience.

Some people just want to have their cake and eat it.
 
Scotty, to be fair you northerners are a bunch of cheapskates when you think about it...:p

I'm allowed to say it, I've got relatives up in North Yorkshire (Nan too) and went to uni in Huddersfield :)
 
Scotty, to be fair you northerners are a bunch of cheapskates when you think about it...:p

I'm allowed to say it, I've got relatives up in North Yorkshire (Nan too) and went to uni in Huddersfield :)
Yer not wrong there.
 
How long is a piece of string? How big is your company - turn over/profit?? How good are you? (no offence but I've worked with people on mid £30k salaries that should have been made redundant years before but weren't due to poor management.) London Senior salaries are poor these days compared to the 90's, cost of living/rent/travel proportion to salary. I was on mid £30k's in 95 as a senior, still seeing that being offered now. I couldn't live back down there even at Senior Senior rates!! Curious as to why you think digital/video guys should be on more money too?
 
How long is a piece of string? How big is your company - turn over/profit?? How good are you? (no offence but I've worked with people on mid £30k salaries that should have been made redundant years before but weren't due to poor management.) London Senior salaries are poor these days compared to the 90's, cost of living/rent/travel proportion to salary. I was on mid £30k's in 95 as a senior, still seeing that being offered now. I couldn't live back down there even at Senior Senior rates!! Curious as to why you think digital/video guys should be on more money too?

I agree.

It does piss me off when I see job ad's asking for the moon on a stick.
Every skill set in the box, proficient in every software package, client facing, tea making and then finnish off, a salary of around 18k.
I mean...... WTF!
I've been often tempted to hit the 'apply' button just to tell them they should be f@cking ashamed of themselves.

Having worked in motion graphics (on the design/illustration side) I get the feeling that it's a supply and demand thing.
I've seen some of the techie guys on decent money churning out pretty mediocre work.
 
Curious as to why you think digital/video guys should be on more money too?
oh that's pretty easy to answer.... blame the "everyones nephew/brother in law/guy next door knows someone with photoshop who will do it for chocolate bar" design philosophy. That doesn't seem to apply to illustration and motion graphics because non 'designers' never seem to remember names like illustrator, after effects, premiere or final cut :)
 
oh that's pretty easy to answer.... blame the "everyones nephew/brother in law/guy next door knows someone with photoshop who will do it for chocolate bar" design philosophy. That doesn't seem to apply to illustration and motion graphics because non 'designers' never seem to remember names like illustrator, after effects, premiere or final cut :)

LOL! SO true. :D
 
Threre are so many variables that can affect the salary of a designer it would be impossible to say a designer is worth £XX at a specific point in their career.

Also you need to ask yourself if your employer changing your 'title' actually changed anything? Did you suddenly become any more responsible for anything or was it just your email signature that changed? If that's the case, it would be foolhardy to request more money based on a job title without anything of substance to back up the request. If on the other hand along with the job title, there were new responsibilities you would have been well within your rights to suggest remuneration for that.

At your appraisal you should certainly try and negotiate a pay rise (I think most employers expect it) based on extra duties, new skills developed, extra value added to the company through your work etc...
 
Firstly, thank you all, for your comments.

Bigdave: Is it a wise move to negotiate a pay rise, even when there was an announcement last year, that everyone will be getting a £1,000 p/a rise this year, bearing in mind, we lost our team leader and subsequently two other team leaders, over the last two year's. (that will NOT be replaced!) Obviously future workloads will now have to be split amongst the rest of us, which in my eyes justify's asking for more money, regardless of our job title!
 
Big Dave's point is a good one: 'senior' is a relative term, meaning different things in different organisations, and a job title is very different to a job description. It's also quite normal in the private sector for people to be paid different amounts for performing the same or similar duties on account of length of service, performance or simply being hard-headed when it comes t negotiating their salary. If you work contracted hours, then picking up more work because there are fewer people on the team (basically 'being busy') is not the same as picking up additional, higher level responsibilities in your job role. So it's either congratulations on a decent 4+% pay rise this year or it's a case of comparing your job description/terms with the outgoing team leader's and making a case for a bigger slice of the cake.
 
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