Designer salary

Q: What state pays Designers the most?

Washington pays Designers the most in the United States, with an average salary of $99,369 per year, or $47.77 per hour.

Q: How do I know if I'm being paid fairly as a Designer?

You know if you are being paid fairly as a Designer if your pay is close to the average pay for the state you live in. For example, if you live in Hawaii you should be paid close to $91,918 per year.

Q: What is a good starting salary for a Designer?

A good starting salary for a designer is $46,000 in the United States. That puts you in the 10th percentile of annual income for a designer in the U.S., which is about what you would expect if you were new to the field. The average salary for designers is $70,703, but that normally requires some level of experience to achieve. Furthermore, a good starting salary for a designer can vary by state.

Q: How much money does a designer make a year?

A designer makes an average of $62,754 per year. Depending on design position, company, and location, a designer can earn from $42,000 a year to $150,000 a year. Location and company play a role in the earning potential of a designer. Designers from California, New York, and the District of Columbia should expect to earn $20k or $30k more a year compared to designers in Tennessee, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

Q: What is the starting salary of a designer?

The starting salary of a designer can range from $14 to $28 an hour. Many factors impact how much a designer just starting can make. Some main determinants of pay rate include the job's location, the type of designer, and the company.

Quoted Expert

Abby Guido

Average designer salary

$66,347

$31.9 hourly rate

Entry-level designer salary

$45,000 yearly salary

Updated January 8, 2025

How much does a designer make?

The average designer salary in the United States is $66,347. Designer salaries typically range between $45,000 and $97,000 yearly. The average hourly rate for designers is $31.9 per hour.

Designer salary is impacted by location, education, and experience. Designers earn the highest average salary in Washington.

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Designer salary by:

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Where can a Designer earn more?

Compare salary by location

130k

110k

90k

70k

50k

30k

Washington$100,293

Bentonville, AR$59,763

Compare salary by company

161k

141k

121k

101k

81k

Meta$133,918

Parsons$110,957

Designer Salaries By Experience Level

Experience Level	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
Entry-level designer	$41,500	$19.93
Mid-level designer	$58,100	$27.94
Senior-level designer	$90,600	$43.56

Designer salary estimates from across the web

Based on the latest salary information compiled by Zippia, Indeed, Glassdoor, Ziprecruiter, SalaryExpert and Comparably, the average salary for a designer typically falls between $66,026 and $131,189.

zippia

$66,347yearly

glassdoor[1]

$79,841yearly

indeed[2]

$95,363yearly

comparably[3]

$66,026yearly

ZipRecruiter[4]

$83,148yearly

SalaryExpert[5]

$131,189yearly

Average designer salary by state

Highest paying states for designers

Rank	State	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
1	Washington	$99,369	$47.77
2	Oregon	$78,743	$37.86
3	Michigan	$72,577	$34.89
4	California	$78,588	$37.78
5	Massachusetts	$72,503	$34.86
6	Hawaii	$91,918	$44.19
7	New York	$71,938	$34.59
8	District of Columbia	$76,268	$36.67
9	Pennsylvania	$69,048	$33.20
10	New Jersey	$73,316	$35.25
11	Rhode Island	$65,749	$31.61
12	New Hampshire	$65,770	$31.62
13	Virginia	$68,696	$33.03
14	Illinois	$67,158	$32.29
15	Wisconsin	$64,756	$31.13
16	Ohio	$66,438	$31.94
17	West Virginia	$69,982	$33.65
18	Colorado	$66,047	$31.75
19	Iowa	$63,136	$30.35
20	North Carolina	$62,679	$30.13
21	Connecticut	$64,816	$31.16
22	Georgia	$61,142	$29.40
23	Indiana	$63,474	$30.52
24	Utah	$60,426	$29.05
25	Maryland	$65,838	$31.65
26	Delaware	$64,250	$30.89
27	Texas	$61,594	$29.61
28	Minnesota	$62,553	$30.07
29	Alaska	$65,827	$31.65
30	Idaho	$61,600	$29.62
31	Wyoming	$58,326	$28.04
32	Tennessee	$59,511	$28.61
33	Arizona	$60,131	$28.91
34	Kentucky	$60,447	$29.06
35	Nevada	$60,410	$29.04
36	Vermont	$58,861	$28.30
37	Arkansas	$59,520	$28.62
38	Alabama	$58,516	$28.13
39	Maine	$55,050	$26.47
40	South Carolina	$58,652	$28.20
41	Missouri	$56,905	$27.36
42	Kansas	$55,979	$26.91
43	Nebraska	$56,062	$26.95
44	Florida	$53,951	$25.94
45	North Dakota	$54,839	$26.36
46	Louisiana	$56,175	$27.01
47	Montana	$47,772	$22.97
48	Mississippi	$54,564	$26.23
49	New Mexico	$50,993	$24.52
50	Oklahoma	$48,017	$23.09
51	South Dakota	$43,912	$21.11

Top designer jobs near you

Highest paying cities for designers

The highest-paying cities for designers are Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA, and Beaverton, OR.

Rank	City	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
1	Seattle, WA	$100,293	$48.22
2	San Francisco, CA	$87,012	$41.83
3	Beaverton, OR	$78,360	$37.67
4	Washington, DC	$76,275	$36.67
5	Boston, MA	$72,469	$34.84
6	New York, NY	$71,993	$34.61
7	Philadelphia, PA	$69,186	$33.26
8	Chicago, IL	$67,341	$32.38
9	Columbus, OH	$66,275	$31.86
10	Baltimore, MD	$66,000	$31.73
11	Denver, CO	$65,994	$31.73
12	New Haven, CT	$64,916	$31.21
13	Greenville, NC	$63,542	$30.55
14	Indianapolis, IN	$63,396	$30.48
15	Minneapolis, MN	$62,538	$30.07
16	San Antonio, TX	$62,137	$29.87
17	Alpharetta, GA	$61,744	$29.68
18	Salt Lake City, UT	$60,281	$28.98
19	Phoenix, AZ	$60,218	$28.95
20	Bentonville, AR	$59,763	$28.73

Designers are the most in-demand in these five cities:

Designer salary details

A designer's salary ranges from $45,000 a year at the 10th percentile to $97,000 at the 90th percentile.

Average Designer Salary Graph, Trends, and Summary

What is a designer's salary?

Percentile	Annual Salary	Monthly Salary	Hourly Rate
90th Percentile	$97,000	$8,083	$47
75th Percentile	$81,000	$6,750	$39
Average	$66,347	$5,529	$32
25th Percentile	$54,000	$4,500	$26
10th Percentile	$45,000	$3,750	$22

Highest paying designer jobs

The highest paying types of designers are lead designer, senior designer, and product designer.

Job Title	Annual Salary	Monthly Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
Graphic Designer/Production	$48,619	$4,052	$23.37	95,831
Graphic Designer, Marketing	$48,763	$4,064	$23.44	115,113
Graphic Designer Internship	$35,800	$2,983	$17.21	93,292
Motion Graphics Designer	$62,558	$5,213	$30.08	44,960
User Experience Designer	$91,159	$7,597	$43.83	52,582
Interactive Designer	$97,929	$8,161	$47.08	48,136

How would you rate the starting salaries for Designers, as well as the prospects for salary advancement?

Abby Guido

Assistant Professor, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University

Designers can be well-compensated for their work. Some design areas are more lucrative than others, which tend to be the jobs in digital design. These jobs include user-experience design, experiential design, interactive design, motion design, and all AR and VR design positions.

Top companies hiring designers now:

Which companies pay designers the most?

Designer salaries at Meta and Google are the highest-paying according to our most recent salary estimates. In addition, the average designer salary at companies like Microsoft and PayPal are highly competitive.

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate
1	Meta	$133,918	$64.38
2	Google	$131,910	$63.42
3	Microsoft	$130,454	$62.72
4	PayPal	$123,862	$59.55
5	Airbnb	$121,657	$58.49
6	Varian Medical Systems	$120,429	$57.90
7	Practice Fusion	$120,303	$57.84
8	Apple	$117,807	$56.64
9	eBay	$117,648	$56.56
10	Dropbox	$117,460	$56.47
11	Twitter	$115,656	$55.60
12	American Tower	$115,300	$55.43
13	Thumbtack	$114,741	$55.16
14	MUFG EMEA	$114,455	$55.03
15	Yahoo	$114,285	$54.94
16	Edelman Financial Engines	$113,391	$54.51
17	Squarespace	$112,831	$54.25
18	SAP	$112,276	$53.98
19	Circle Internet Financial	$111,907	$53.80
20	Parsons	$110,957	$53.34

Wage gap by gender, race and education

$68,000$67,000$66,000$65,000$64,000$63,000

MaleFemale

Designer salary by industry

The average designer salary varies across industries:

The average designer salary in the technology industry is $87,754, the highest of any industry.
The average designer salary in the finance industry is $77,606.
Designers in the professional industry earn an average salary of $65,070, the lowest of any industry.

Highest paying industries for designers

Rank	Industry	Average Salary	Hourly Rate
1	Technology	$87,754	$42.19
2	Finance	$77,606	$37.31
3	Manufacturing	$72,109	$34.67
4	Retail	$70,584	$33.93
5	Media	$66,290	$31.87
6	Professional	$65,070	$31.28

High Paying Designer Jobs

Designer salary trends

The average designer salary has risen by $11,646 over the last ten years. In 2014, the average designer earned $54,701 annually, but today, they earn $66,347 a year. That works out to a 12% change in pay for designers over the last decade.

Compare designer salaries for cities or states with the national average over time.

Average designer salary over time

Compare designer salaries for individual cities or states with the national average.

National Average

Designer salary by year

Year	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate	% Change
2025	$66,300	$31.90	+2.4%
2024	$64,800	$31.14	+3.3%
2023	$62,600	$30.10	+3.3%
2022	$60,500	$29.10	+2.2%
2021	$59,200	$28.47	+1.6%

Recently added designer salaries

Company	Job	Location	Date Added	Salary
Lifetime Brands	Designer	Pawtucket, RI	12/18/2024	$70,000
La-Z-Boy, Inc.	Designer	Annapolis, MD	12/17/2024	$26,000
Brookdale Senior Living	Designer	Brentwood, TN	12/16/2024	$58,230
La-Z-Boy	Design Assoicate	Kenosha, WI	12/16/2024	$22,957
The Container Store	Designer	Broomfield, CO	12/16/2024	$33,392
Perkins & Will Inc.	Designer II	Washington, MO	12/16/2024	$69,700
Target	Designer, Concept and Trend: Fun 101 (Hardlines)(Remote or Hybrid)	Minneapolis, MN	12/16/2024	$69,000
Revolve Group	Designer, Knitwear	Los Angeles, CA	12/16/2024	$85,000
Consultnet	Bim/Revit Designer (Early Career)	Sandy, UT	12/16/2024	$48,001
The Branding Journal	Brand Designer	New York, NY	12/16/2024	$75,000

Designer salary FAQs

What state pays Designers the most?

How do I know if I'm being paid fairly as a Designer?

What is a good starting salary for a Designer?

How much money does a designer make a year?

What is the starting salary of a designer?

Have more questions? See all answers to common arts, entertainment, sports, and media questions.

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Updated January 8, 2025

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