Salary transparency project shows discrepancy across UK games wages
Spreadsheet set up by several industry employees invites peers to anonymously share pay, roles and experience level
A spreadsheet set up to encourage more pay transparency in the UK games industry has unveiled the average salaries for people working across different roles and sectors.
The effort was led by Sally Blake from indie studio Silent Games, as well as CreativeUK programme manager Chris Filip.
As of writing, the spreadsheet has amassed almost 1,300 entries from professionals in the industry, and has used the data to calculate the average annual pay for almost 50 different roles at seven different skill levels: intern, junior, intermediate, senior, leader, director and executive.
For example, the sheet says that the average salary for a game designer at junior level is £26,000, £44,000 at senior level, and £87,000 at director level.
The lowest paid role across the board according to the data is QA, which pays junior staff an average of £21,000, senior staff £27,000, and leaders £35,000. Positions in audio design, 3D art and journalism also showed lower salaries on average.
Meanwhile the highest paid roles are in online programming, which pays an average of £30,000 for interns, £70,000 for seniors, and around £90,000 in leadership roles. Other high paid roles include business development, data analysis and production.
"We made the new salary spreadsheet with the intention of making it accessible and clear for people to discover the salary differences across areas such as discipline, location, and experience levels," Blake told GamesIndustry.biz, nodding towards a previous project led by Weather Factory's Lottie Bevan. "Salary transparency is something the industry is slowly becoming more accustomed to, and hopefully resources such as this help provide a very basic benchmark or discussion point for workers.
"While it isn't a solution to long term salary discrepancies or solving problems that come alongside, we hope this community-led initiative serves as a helpful tool that can help promote healthy discussions around salaries. There have already been many contributions to the spreadsheet, as well as suggestions for improvements moving forward which we are grateful for."
The team is still taking submissions for the sheet via Google form, and the averages will change based on new additions to the data.