Two creative sectors push for ‘rate-silent’ interviews

Freelancers who work in Client Services and Social & Content are the likeliest backers of a creative recruiter’s campaign for hiring managers to keep their nose out of rates at interview.

In a new survey, Major Players shows 64% of Social & Content workers want probing about their existing pay stopped. Fifty-two per cent of Client Services (CS) workers said the same.

That positions both sectors to be the biggest endorsers of a ‘rate-silent’ interview -- out of nine other traditionally creative sectors, although the workers quizzed in CS were mainly non-freelancers.

'Shocking'

However, what both sectors share is the overwhelming consensus that they are not paid enough -- 87% feel underpaid in Social & Content, rising to 89% in Client Services, the 2019 survey found.

Major Players described this dominant feeling of underpayment from as many as almost nine in 10 candidates in both these creative-led sectors as ‘shocking.’

The subtext of the findings seems to be that CS and Social Content creatives believe that once interviewers discover their existing rate; they get ‘shoe-horned’ into the same role or kept in a pay bracket that looks lower than fair for the work they do or the skills they bring.

Other creatives say they share the feeling of commanding less cash than they ought to but, according to the survey, not as universally.

'Remuneration' is the driving force to look elsewhere

For example, Creative Project Management (CPM), Design & Creative, Experimental & Events and PR & Comms each have a large chunk of workers feeling ‘underpaid,’ but the proportions are much closer to 80%.

Interestingly, those in CPM signalled that they won’t stand for it for much longer, given that “remuneration” is the most common factor driving more than half of them to be planning to quit their role within the next six months.

Feeling inadequately paid must also be galling for Experimental & Events freelancers, because their sector saw some of the most generous pay packets handed out, the annual survey adds.

End-hirers 'willing to pay a higher price'

Specifically, 66% reported receiving a pay rise in the last year, including 26% whose increase for their E&E work or services exceeded 10%.

Studio freelancers (a fifth of whom now command up to £250 a day) are almost as likely to have secured a rate rise, but the biggest new wads of extra cash were reserved for Marketers (63% got a rise, with a fifth pocketing at least 21% more), and Architects (78% got a rise, with 23% pocketing at least 10% more).

“Despite modest growth in the economy, there were still a significant number of pay rises across the board,” said Major Players, which quizzed 3,000 of its creative industry candidates to produce the findings for its yearly survey.

The recruiter added: “Around 60% of respondents received a pay rise and 25% received a rise of over 10%. This shows employers are willing to pay a higher price for skilled and talented workers.”