Really depends on the size of company, structure, actual experience…
I’m also a fellow nyc designer- what I see is… big name retailer/brand companies pay more…than mid/small size companies… (there are always exceptions, but most of cases…)
Before Covid… I see director with 20yrs+ experience make 150-200k++ senior 90-120k
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I have seen in my last job before covid some design director making around 145K and the company was on the cheap side. These directors had 20+ years experience. Sadly now in 2021 during covid on average in various departments salary are probably 20 to 30% less. A lot of companies hire people with 3-5 years experience and pay them very little.
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I have seen bonuses given, but as an unattainable dangle. They give the team very lofty goals that involve not only the employee, but their team and other teams’ cooperation to achieve. That’s like herding cats.
Very disingenuous.
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I am not even sure you can give an average $ value to job titles anymore.
I’ve worked in places where designers with similar responsibility levels earn wildly different salaries.
Overall, all salaries I know of are at least 30% lower over the past 10 years. I see very little growth in salaries unless you change jobs. I saw quite a few promotions take place during Covid but not one person received a raise with the title. Maybe something less obvious like the company paid for their insurance.
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Design director at our company is over 200k and that was a few years ago. I have found there’s no consistency. Glass door and here are the only 2 places I found to try and research salary info other than word of mouth. Hr is not very helpful on interviews either. Not sure why it’s always a big secret for interviews. There’s a budget range for every open position.
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Just a dose of reality here, my friends. My daughter has an entry level job in tech sales right out of college at $71K. The very bare minimum that her fellow college grads make is $42K in marketing. The average salary for starting positions in NYC is $60K. So, any entry level position in fashion at $28K is downright wrong. For an experienced designer or tech person to fight for $60K is again, morally wrong. This is all due to a huge glut of fashion professionals graduating from fashion design programs in every college in America all competing for a few jobs. Supply and demand. Thankfully I am at the end of my career and can charge what I want. Or I don’t work for them. Design directors made $200K 25 years ago. This is a dead end profession, unless you own your own company. For a salaried person, forget it. Just so you know.
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Sad but true. I was offered a project doing tech packs last week. I passed. I make 3x that amount designing websites. But the truth is that there aren’t as many designers in fashion or home furnishings as there were 2 years ago. The pool of qualified applicants is much smaller. Awful hiring practices have gotten worse. It’s sad. I loved designing textiles, but not I’m not going to make millions for an employer that won’t pay a fair wage.
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I hired senior designers at 100 and 120, in the past I made 130 and 150 as a design director. Now as a VP of design I make over 200. I’ve been told I’ve hit my ceiling, and honestly I don’t think you will find very many companies where anyone in design can make much more than the 120 range. Shit is competitive though and this career is a hard one. I don’t think I’m not the norm as I did end up making good money in my 15y experience, but most people I know don’t make it to this level as there are very few high pay jobs in design. Regardless, any design job will work you to the bone, I question every day when I will be done with this industry as I feel mentally and physically unhealthy and it’s a challenge being a present parent when you run on stress all the time.
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Absolutely. My son is in his 20’s now, but honestly, I regret that I wasn’t around enough. As much as I enjoyed the work, the industry shuts you out when you hit your mid 50’s. My salary went down 30-40% and the opportunities dried up. I hope the new people entering the business demand better and enact some changes. My experience is common also. Nearly All of my contemporaries have the same experience. These are talented, knowledgeable professionals.
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The industry seems to be back to normal-
some big name companies or some open minded owner companies still offer WFH, but it looks like the rest of “normal” fashion companies are mostly back in full time including myself.
I have been quite shocked that how much associate designer salary being discussed/offered nowadays, when I was hiring associate level last year- HR also told me its hard to find assistant/associate level(3-5yrs) these days- (I really didn’t find a good candidate for a job, and at the end, I had to compromise)
we were offering 65-75K for an associate, which I thought its more like starting salary for a designer level- at least b4 Pandemic…
At the same time, job postings I’ve seen it and was looking for a job, those senior designer +++ salaries seems still the same, even lowered.
Whats the design director salary range this year? I wonder I should ask for a raise…
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I’ve always heard 70 as a max for Associate. Anything over is like a Sr. Associate/ Jr. Designer. The salary range you had was great! If you need someone for denim let me know. Lol
In San Fran or west coast up to nike adidas seattle 130-150. Nyc have no idea but assuming some people are underpaid
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I was offered DD at 115; a counter offer a year in got me to 140-- NYC-based home textiles.
Comp research from job postings for me shows the range is 125-215 for DD, with some places next level being VP, some having AVP or Sr Director as intermediate.
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At a very reputable, publicly traded fashion house I made 130 as a senior design Director and my bonus was approximately 80 K depending on performance. There were definitely decent perks as well, but when I left them, I substantially increased my base salary. While interviewing, I deduced that I was being considerably underpaid in my senior design director role
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