{"id":22449,"date":"2019-12-05T16:22:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T23:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/honeybook.site.strattic.io\/?p=22449"},"modified":"2024-05-29T03:53:14","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T10:53:14","slug":"2019-gender-pay-gap-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/2019-gender-pay-gap-report","title":{"rendered":"2019 Gender Pay Gap Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earning Power in the Creative Economy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2017 HoneyBook uncovered a significant pay gap between male and female freelancers and today we are following up that report with new findings on pay equity in the creative industries. <\/span><\/p>\n

Have things gotten better in two years? Yes and no. While the annual wage gap is narrowing, new data shows that this is not because women are earning equal pay, but instead because they are working more. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many working in the creative economy left the 9-to-5 workforce to be their own boss, determine their own hours and make a substantial income pursuing their passions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the reality is that many of the pain-points that workers face in the corporate world exist in this environment as well. In fact, the lack of institutional and legal protections that are offered in a corporate setting can make these problems harder to combat for freelancers. So, are freelancers truly dodging big issues like the gender pay gap?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the question that we set out to answer in 2017. After analyzing more than one hundred thousand invoices and surveying thousands of self-employed professionals, we discovered that female freelancers were earning a shocking 32 percent less than men in the same industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, we wanted to know whether the pay gap and attitudes towards it have improved. For female creative entrepreneurs, the answer is complicated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the annual income gap between male and female creatives has dropped significantly to 11 percent. But further analysis reveals significant pay inequality remains: women are making 26 percent less per project. In fact, to close the gap women are completing 22 percent more projects a year than men. The gender pay gap is shrinking, but only because women are taking on more projects each year to make up for unequal pay.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methodology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

HoneyBook analyzed 345,675 invoices from October 2018 – October 2019 to understand if the gender pay gap still exists and how it has evolved over the past two years. The analysis was supplemented with a survey of 1,856 freelancers in the US and Canada, administered from October 18 – October 31, 2019 via SurveyMonkey, to better understand why wage discrepancies exist in the creative economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Findings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Average annual earnings for female creatives in 2019 total about $51,900, while men bring in about $57,700 annually. However, on a per-project basis, women earn on average $2,221 per project and men earn on average $3,000 per project – 26 percent less.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This stark gap exists despite the fact that female freelancers have obtained more education than their male counterparts. 71 percent of women have completed their bachelor or graduate degree, compared to 54 percent of men.
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To understand these findings better, we analyzed per-project pay by industry:
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Although the survey found that women are not as likely as men to lower their prices based on client negotiations, they are still making less. So, what\u2019s behind the gap? Female creatives are underpricing their work in nearly every industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when asked whether they would change their pricing if they found out that their prices were lower than someone of the opposite gender in the same industry and geographic region, 80 percent of females said they would take action. This willingness on the part of female freelancers to adapt their prices indicates that awareness and education are essential to closing the pay gap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that awareness of the gender pay gap is rising. In 2017, 63 percent of female and 72 percent of male freelancers believed that men and women earned equal pay. Today those percentages have shrunk. Only 35 percent of females and 59 percent of male freelancers believe that men and women earn equal pay.
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All respondents said that the primary cause of the gender pay gap was women undervaluing and underselling their services. Wage secrecy was also identified as a leading cause. But women and men also cite different reasons for the gap:<\/span><\/p>\n