Get the 2021 Salary Guide and all the juicy details.

It's a new year, and for months now, we've been toiling away to bring you the brand new 2021 Salary Guide. The latest version covers all our usual juicy salary information for over 100 roles in marketing, design, and development, based on real-time data collected from nearly 20,000 professionals using our Check Salary tool. 

This year, we also delve into the impact of COVID-19 and the unacceptable gender pay gap. Here's your two-minute overview of what we covered this year in the guide.

Bumpy Life, Steady Salaries

While the world has been turned upside down, we found that salaries have managed to remain stable for the most part or that the pay cuts were not significant enough to affect the median. Check out the year-over-year comparison for over 100 positions and see which are growing the most. (In a recent survey of over 4 million people, UX designers landed in the top 20 for fastest-growing jobs, compared to the year before.)

Silicon Peaks and Valleys

2021 Talent Insights – The “Great Resignation” Has Given Its Notice

By Aquent Talent 09.15.2021

Compensation • Insights & Trends

This year, we look at three different geographic areas to give a more accurate representation of salaries based on cost of living. Group 1 is San Francisco and Silicon Valley which, not surprisingly, has the highest pay scales. The area is known for sky-high rents and a booming tech scene. Group 2 is other large cities across the country, including Boston, LA, New York, and Atlanta. Group 3 represents more mid-size cities like Detroit, Phoenix, and Baltimore.

Interestingly, now that the pandemic has record numbers of us working from home, organizations are grappling with whether they will pay an employee a ‘big-city salary' if they live somewhere with a lower cost of living. Some, like Redfin, are adjusting salaries for employees who choose to move. Their Director of Communications, Rachel Musiker, who relocated to Rochester, NY from Brooklyn will have to take a 20% pay cut to stay upstate.

The Gender Gap Grows

We've long known that the gender gap is a real problem. Throw a global pandemic into the mix, and it's become downright alarming. The 2021 Salary Guide digs into the details on how working women have been affected, and in particular, working moms. 

Data collected by the Labor Department indicates that it usually is the mother who takes on the brunt of childcare and schooling for their remote-learning children—and oftentimes, it's at the price of their own job. In fact, 865,000 women dropped out of the workforce this past fall—four times the number of their male counterparts.

The problem has gotten so bad that the BBC has taken to calling it a ‘shecession.' Ariane Hegewisch, who leads Employment and Earnings for the Institute for Women's Policy Research, says the biggest danger is that “people are starting to associate women with childcare more strongly than before.” And that can lead to discrimination going forward as women are passed over for promotions because they are seen as being too divided between work and home.

A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action

This year's Salary Guide also explores what we are doing specifically to combat the gender pay gap and how we are moving toward a more diverse workforce in general. In addition to cultivating different voices and unique perspectives, studies have shown that a more diverse team is more profitable—Boston Consulting Group recently found that a diverse team is 19% more profitable. 

Get Your Guide!

As you can tell, the 2021 Salary Guide covers a lot of fertile ground, and we want you to reap the rewards of our research. Request your copy today and get the scoop on salaries and the context behind them. And as always, please let us know what other topics you would like to see us explore—we love to hear from you!

Compensation (10)
Insights & Trends (27)