Salary Survey 2018: The best and worst paid industries

Gambling and gaming has emerged as the industry where marketers are most happy, and while there are a number of contributing factors (working environment, potential to advance) another big one is financial remuneration.

Indeed, gaming and gambling is one of the top three best paid industries for marketers, according to Marketing Week’s annual Career and Salary Survey, with an average salary of £56,271, just behind FMCG (£57,196) and consumer electronics (£56,510).

By contrast, the three worst paid sectors are charity/not-for-profit (average salary £37,871), construction/property (£40,348) and education (£41,490). See full chart below.

READ MORE: How marketing salaries stack up in 2019

The best paid industries for men are FMCG, health and pharmaceuticals, and gaming and gambling; whereas for women FMCG, gaming and gambling and the financial sector offer the most money.

These don’t necessarily correspond to the industries where marketers think their pay is fair, however. Of the marketers working at utilities companies, 65.6% say their employers do very well or fairly well at offering fair financial rewards, followed by gaming and gambling (64.8%) and the financial sector (61.2%).

The worst performing industries for offering fair financial reward are the charity/not-for-profit sector, where only 42% of marketers say their employer is meeting their expectations. This is followed by the entertainment industry (45.5%) and construction/property (47.1%).

As regards financial remuneration, Kristof Fahy, the former CMO and chief customer officer at Ladbrokes Coral Group, believes the gaming and gambling industry has gone on a journey with the advent of digital, where initially it had to source talent from outside.

“I don’t think [at that time] betting and gaming was seen as a progressive industry and you probably needed to pay a slight premium to get people to leave well-known brands and get them to consider betting and gaming as a good career path, so there tended to be a small premium attached to that,” he explains.

“Now it’s such a competitive industry and often your team are getting calls on a monthly basis trying to get them go to other firms, so the only way to retain them is to keep them well remunerated. People want experience and to tap into that skill.”

Look out for more from Marketing Week’s Career and Salary Survey being published throughout the week. 

Average wages per sector (regardless of gender)

• The 2018 Marketing Week Career and Salary Survey analysed the responses of 4,154 marketers from 24 different industries including agencies and consultancies, the automotive sector, entertainment, FMCG, financial, telecoms, sport and travel. The seniority of the respondents ranged from graduates and marketing assistants to senior managers, board directors and partners. This is a nationwide sample of UK marketers, including digital specialists. In all cases relating to pay marketers were asked to give their basic wage, excluding bonuses and benefits.