This is a common question that people ask and I get a few people emailing me about this too. The trouble is no-one wants to tell you it’s a taboo question to talk about wages. I remember when I started out freelancing I was fairly lucky as I had previously hired freelance designers (when the company got busy) and knew the kind of going rates that I could charge. One way to find out average design wages is to look at the jobs section of design magazines or design recruitment websites.
Post Updated (September 5 2010)
The blog that I had previously linked to is no longer available so instead you can find examples of possible designer wages on these blog posts:
How much does a graphic designer earn
Salary Track
Creative Pool
Also please take a look at my design resources page where Lauren from Creative Curio has created a freelance rates calculator.
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17 Comments
WOW as a freelancer getting 40bucks really great deal…can’t think if someone upgrade himself on some specific topics… Im reading and reading over all on internet and learning great things about computer enginering/web designer etc, btw this money earnings for internet workers article really great and made me crazy thx for article
This is an interesting article, I had a look at the resources and it looks like I should be earning more
never mind at least I get to do what I enjoy 
Designers in Malaysia usually charge by project.
Cool post, never really thought about looking into the average wage. Quite surprising, thanks.
Hi Shane
Glad it was useful
Tara
I have practised hourly rates and budget fees for jobs. I find clients are generally happier with a agreed budget fees, as they know where they stand. Besides, some you gain on and some you lose. it all averages out. Quicker payment would be good. I had to wait nearly six moths to get paid for one particular job!
Hi Gary
Like you I do agreed budget fees, but also some by the hour jobs. Six months is a long time to be waiting for your money, I have been lucky and only had real payments problems once.
Down hear in deepest darkest west wales Graphic Designers do not get paid a grate deal. However it is the same for every profession in the county. It is a low wage rural county. The city designers earn considerably more
It is very difficult to put a value on your design work as you probably view your work with tiered eyes comparing it to your peers. Being freelance does mean that you can be price competitive against print firms and agencies as you have reduced overheads, but I do think the key when figuring out your design pricing structure is to estimate your average work load and compare this to your living costs, if you enjoy being graphic designing you need to make sure you can survive doing it.
Hi Gavin,
Some good advice.
Lauren from http://www.creativecurio.com created a free freelance living costs calculator on my design resources page which is ideal for this.
You will be lowly paid if you’re not famous enough. From what I’ve experienced, graphic designer can be very poor or very rich. It’s rare that you are in the middle of it. You famous, you are rich. That’s just my two cents.
In my country Dominican Republic the rates are not very high. The marketing company are the one that earn all the money.
It is true about being well known for design and being able to claim your rewards. But most clients do have some money to spend. Some designers i know evaluate the clients business potential and charge accordingly. So they make more per hr with large clients who are used to spending and uses that extra money to subsidise the smaller new businesses where cash flow is tight.
Hello,
Not too sure if this is the right area of the blog for my post. I am very amateur at graphic design but sometimes get asked to design say a flyer or business stationery. I send the necessary files to a local printer who I have a really good relationship with and they print the required amount etc. Sometimes it is chepaer than, if whoever I am helping has had other quotes.
Some people say that it is because I am doing the design side of things allowing the printer just literally to print. However they also say you should charge for what I have done. The question is what should I charge?
It’s the same for the odd website!
Thankyou as always,
Best wishes
Graeme
Hi Graeme
You need to work out how long you think it will take you and how much you want to earn for your time. Take a look at the post I linked to for a guide. You should definitely charge for your design time plus mark up the print cost for managing it.
Hello,
Not too sure if this is the right area of the blog for my post. I am very amateur at graphic design but sometimes get asked to design say a flyer or business stationery. I send the necessary files to a local printer who I have a really good relationship with and they print the required amount etc. Sometimes it is chepaer than, if whoever I am helping has had other quotes.
Some people say that it is because I am doing the design side of things allowing the printer just literally to print. However they also say you should charge for what I have done. The question is what should I charge?
It’s the same for the odd website!
Thankyou as always,
Best wishes
Gareme
When I worked for the Engage Group we did a lot of magazine work, We charged by the page rather than by the hour. We charge between £140 – £160 per page (A4 or A3). So, for a sixteen page magazine the design alone would be approx £2240.00. Of course we had the print mark up too, writers and photographers fees etc to add on. One magazine would often be £10k+. Some pages were relatively simple and you earned good money, other perhaps needed a map or graphs to draw, or may have a lot of photoshop work, and you could lose on them. Swings and roundabouts! Best thing for the client was, they knew exactly where they stood when paying per page. These were clients like 02, Total, Corus Steel, Shell etc, they we’re big enough to afford the fees, not all clients have that kind of money.