On average, female marketers working full-time are paid 16% less than their male counterparts, according to the exclusive 2024 Marketing Week Career & Salary Survey.

This figure marks a very slight improvement on 2023 when the gender pay gap stood at 16.5%.

It is still far higher – more than double – the national average of 7.7% though, as recorded by the Office for National Statistics in April 2023. 

‘Where’s the incentive?’: The impact of marketing’s persistent gender pay gap problem

The ONS calculates the gender pay gap as the difference between average hourly earnings (excluding overtime) of men and women as a proportion of men’s average hourly earnings. The figure is the measure across all jobs in the UK, rather than the difference in pay between men and women for doing the same job.

While still representing a significant void, Marketing Week’s analysis shows there has been an improvement in marketing’s gender pay gap over the past five years.

In 2020, the data revealed a whopping 28% difference. This dropped to 23% in 2022 and still further to 12.6% in 2022 before rising back to 16.5% last year.

Marketing Week digs into 2024’s pay data further in this in-depth feature, which reveals the gender disparity by seniority and sector and analyses what is going on.

Over the coming weeks, Marketing Week will be publishing a series of exclusive news and features based on the findings of the 2024 Career & Salary Survey, including the impact of tightening budgets, pay disparities and the state of marketing salaries. Click here to view everything we’ve published so far.