10. Not being funny but I'd rather have equal pay than a free croissant
The gender pay gap – can we just not
Many thanks to our contributor this week, a Gen-Z marketing exec who is strongly against unpaid internships.
One thing I really admire about Gen-Z is that they have a much lower tolerance for BS. It’s great to see that young professional women are increasingly more unwilling to accept shoddy arrangements, and put their own self-worth at the forefront of their lives. Whilst previously they might have accepted ridiculously low-paid internships, this sort of thing is becoming increasingly unacceptable and it’s thanks to contributors like this.
According to the ONS, the gender pay gap among all employees was 15.5% in 2020, down from 17.4% in 2019. Clearly, this ain’t great, but it’s good to see progress even it is at a glacial pace.
But honestly honestly, lack of pay transparency is one of the biggest enemies of progress for women in the modern world. It only benefits employers and, according to these figures, almost certainly disadvantages women. There is a sea of stories out there where women have found out they’re being paid less than their male counterparts and every. single. woman I know will know this to be true either of themselves, or of someone they know.
If you have a minute, please check out this interactive gender pay gap report from the BBC. It shares information on gender pay gaps from a number of companies across the UK. If you’re nosy like me you’ll find this really insightful.
I did a wee search (these are all averages btw):
For every £10 a man earns at the BBC, a woman earns £9.24
For every £10 a man earns at Apple UK, a woman earns £8.50
For every £10 a man earns at Bauer Consumer Media, a woman earns £8.49
For every £10 a man earns at Spotify Ltd, a woman earns £8.32
For every £10 a man earns at Global Radio Services, a woman earns £8.06
Of course no data is ever full-proof. These are just averages and I’m sure part of the earning disparities we see come down to seniority, i.e. men often end up in more senior positions than woman and thus are paid more or a host of other reasons. What I find particularly maddening is when individuals who have the same, or very similar job titles are still paid differently. There are a number of reasons - justified or otherwise - why this might be: experience, unconscious bias, ability to negotiate etc. Whatever reason women usually pay the price. 9/10 times the reasoning comes back to the patriarchy, which, in my opinion, shouldn’t really affect my earning potential. I’m sure there are pay gaps at some companies in favour of women, I just haven’t found them yet.
Now, this report includes information on companies across all industries – constructing, marketing, engineering, law – you name it, and whilst I haven’t done a comprehensive search it did seem like the gender pay gap in audio companies was a little lower (on average) than other industries’ gender pay gap. So that’s something?
If you want to get better acquainted with this newsletter, read the first ever post here. And if you want to contribute to this newsletter please get in touch at oparaandwade@gmail.com.
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What do you do?
I work in marketing for a major audio platform in the UK. My job entails working across the brand and product marketing as well as content marketing for podcast titles. It's really creative and covers a lot of bases which I love. And you get to meet people from every part of the business, like the commissioners, talent, creative teams, etc, so it can be really fun too!
How much money do you make on average per annum?
My starting salary was £28k, which rose to £29k as part of inflation (thanking BECTU for that one!)
How do you feel about the money you earn?
I was pleasantly surprised at how much it was, for a junior/entry-level job in the media. My salary practically doubled by taking this job (albeit my previous one was an internship) so I really enjoyed the moment especially knowing that I shouldn't get used to that kind of salary progression. I say that because I do get the impression that the company I work for has pretty decent starting salaries, but for lots of people, it's easy for wages to stagnate thereafter.
One thing that does bother me more generally is that working in a creative industry you often hear that 'you're not in it for the money!'. I understand that it's partly true, for most people it is their passion and it's a privilege to be able to do that for a living. But I'm also really skeptical towards that argument when you think about how much those with senior job titles are earning (and what kind of background those people tend to have).
When I was an intern, I remember one morning I figured out that the head of the UK branch of the company I worked for earned my total annual salary in one day. No one should ever tell you that not being paid a lot is okay because it's 'what you love' or you 'get other perks', because that’s not true for everyone is it? Some people get all the perks on top of a massive salary too! And what about the cleaners and support staff – what is the excuse for not paying them properly? At the very least, I definitely think that everyone's salary should be transparent so you're able to come to your own informed opinion on whether you think your pay is fair or not.
What’s been your experience of audio so far?
My first real entry into work was as an intern in the music industry. Again, I felt extremely privileged to land a competitive placement like that, but the pay and working culture wasn't great. I worked full hours for a year and they paid me £14k which, given the amount of over-time I had to do to wait for colleagues in other parts of the world to wake up, was definitely below the minimum wage (let alone the London living wage!). I was only able to do the internship because I grew up in London and could move back in with my parents after I graduated uni, so it was definitely a scheme that shut people not from London and/or on lower incomes out.
A real low moment was when the gender pay report came out. It turned out that on average male employees earned 50% more than female employees (for context, this was the same year that the BBC pay scandal was in the news and that was a 10% difference). The disparity in bonus payments among staff was 80%, which is just inexcusable. I got the impression that the company was not only very traditional but also totally clueless about that fact, particularly despite it being a business that essentially relied on the creativity of young talent to survive. It was International Women's Day a few weeks later and HR thought one way to make up for it was to give everyone (men included!) a free Pret breakfast. I love an almond croissant as much as the next millennial but implying that it would help dismantle the patriarchy or whatever was a bit of a slap in the face lol.
What change would you like to see in the audio industry?
I think going on from that, no business should be offering unpaid internships in 2021, and those that do offer paid ones should pay enough to live off. I think it would be a step forward in opening up fairer access to opportunities in the industry, and it's an important principle that everyone is remunerated fairly for their time. I’m aware that my own privileges have got me to where I am in my career, and I guess the least I can do is understand how that privilege works and to help change the industry now I’m in it. More broadly I think that the industry needs to engage with diversity not just on headcount issues, but more deeply on who gets promotions, who reaches senior positions, and how that impacts editorial output. 'Corporate diversity' should be a means to genuinely confront existing hierarchies of power and not just HR fluff.
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Thanks to our contributor this week!