July 27, 2021 • News
Australian Advertising Council’s 2021 industry salary survey findings revealed
Tony Hale, CEO, ACA
Each year, Advertising Council Australia (ACA) conducts its annual salary survey of participating member agencies, in partnership with Paprika Software, the leading global agency management system.
The survey is recognised as the largest collection of salary information of its kind, providing ACA members with a broad insight into the salary range of creatives from across the industry.
It is conducted as a census of salaries as at March 31 each year, but due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, no meaningful data was able to be collected in 2020. This provided an opportunity to overhaul the traditionally static way in which ACA delivered the survey’s results.
In its new digital and interactive dashboard format, ACA’s Salary Survey has evolved into a dynamic database and a comprehensive business planning tool, enabling agencies to forecast trends, benchmark salaries against all other agencies in the country, and plan their staffing schedule more effectively. Rather than just a single year, the dashboard includes salary data dating back to 2009.
ACA and Paprika are now proud to release the 2021 salary survey findings.
This year’s survey gathered data from 98 agencies nationally across 182 positions and incorporated approximately 4,200 staff salaries across both permanent and part-time roles to provide the latest insights into salary trends across the industry.
Key findings reveal that the average salary increased 4.9 percent over two years - a sign that Australia’s advertising sector fared well over the course of the pandemic and the ensuing economic downturn. It demonstrates that Australian businesses continued to invest in creativity as the backbone of their marketing efforts.
Turnover of staff dropped 16 percent over the two years, which is significant. This is estimated to be an impact of the pandemic and off the back of it, less redundancies and very few people leaving their jobs to instead opt for job security.
The industry now comprises 56 percent of females and 44 percent of males, which is consistent with 2019 data.
The number of women in senior management roles now sits at 33 per cent, which has been a steady increase since 2017.
The annual ACA salary survey continues to be a valuable database for our members.
I’d like to thank our partner on this project, Paprika, for their support to the industry and tireless efforts to make ACA’s annual industry salary survey the best it can be.
We look forward to sharing the results of our 2022 survey with you, as well as insights into salary trends from the coming year.
Tony Hale
CEO
Advertising Council Australia
