Marketing Week’s 2023 Career and Salary Survey has revealed an 18.2% mean socio-economic pay gap among full-time marketing workers. Despite marketing being urged to “own” its socio-economic pay gap problem in 2022, this year’s figure is only a slight improvement on the 19.1% pay gap reported the previous year. Among more than 3,000 respondents, just 22.1% of marketers come from working-class or skilled working-class backgrounds. The data also reveals a relationship between socio-economic background and earning potential as marketers climb the career ladder, with marketers from working-class backgrounds earning considerably less than their peers.

Brands are diversifying their talent pipelines to increase representation of individuals from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, introducing apprenticeships, democratising mentoring, and revamping hiring practices, but progress is slow. The Marketing T-Level, starting in 2025, will combine study with a substantial industry placement of nine weeks. KPMG has published its biggest progression gap analysis of over 16,500 employees, committing to increasing the number of leaders from lower socio-economic backgrounds to 29% by 2030.

For more info, check out the full article over on MarketingWeek