Pay check: what creative roles pay

What the jobs in our index pay, by level, from the salaries companies publish. The charts update with every new role, so the numbers are always current.

Every job in the WorkWithUs index that comes with a published salary goes into Pay check. It is not a survey and not a guess: it is what employers wrote down in public, next to the job they want to fill. That makes it a small sample, but an honest one, and because it is calculated from the live index, it is never out of date.

How we calculate it

For every role with a yearly base pay range, we take the midpoint of the range. For each group of levels we then show the median of those midpoints: the value in the middle, with half of the roles paying more and half paying less. The median is less sensitive to one unusually high or low posting than an average.

A group only appears once at least five roles in it have a published salary. Below that, a single posting would move the number too much. Hourly and monthly rates are left out, and so are equity and bonuses, which can add a lot at larger tech companies.

Why Europe often has no number

Far fewer European postings name a salary than American ones. The difference is mostly legal: several US states, among them New York, California and Colorado, require employers to publish a pay range in job postings. In the EU, the Pay Transparency Directive will make pay information for applicants mandatory, but in many countries the national rules are new or still being finalised. Until they apply, many European companies leave the field empty, and the Europe chart stays short.

How to use this when you apply

1. Treat a published range as the real budget. Many offers land in the lower half or the middle; the top of the range is often reserved for candidates who exceed what the posting asks for.
2. If there is no number, ask early. A short, friendly question in the first call (what range is planned for this role?) saves both sides time. It is a normal question, not a demand.
3. Compare like with like. A senior role at a 20-person studio and a senior role at a listed tech company are different jobs, even with the same title.
4. Look at the whole package. Holidays, remote days, learning budgets and notice periods are worth something too, and in Europe they often differ more than the salary does.

For companies

If you are hiring: put the salary in your posting. Roles with a number tend to get more relevant applications, and candidates do not have to guess whether a conversation is worth their time. On WorkWithUs, the pay you enter is shown right in the job row, and it counts towards Pay check.

Source: salaries published in the WorkWithUs job index, recalculated with every update. Each month's final figures are kept as an edition; see the Pay check page for past months.