Income Inequality in Male vs. Female Influencers

Analyzingsponsored posts on Instagram, 84% of them were posted by female influencers while only 16% were posted by male influencers. However, even with the vast majority of influencers being women, we’re still seeing signs of income inequality.

性别薪酬差距并不是什么新鲜事。我们认识到每年的平等报酬日（明年3月15日），这是象征着妇女必须在第二年工作以赚取上一年男性所做的事情的日期。

But seeing such a pay discrepancy in a heavily female field is unsettling. In fact, one study discovered that male influencersmake an average of 30% more per postthan female influencers do.

There have been a few different studies that open our eyes to income inequality between male and female influencers. Let’s visit their findings and talk about what we can do to combat this issue.

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Income Inequality in Male vs. Female Influencers:

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Average Rates: Male vs. Female Influencers

Influencer analytics platform HypeAuditor was one of the first companies to bring this issue to light with astudy they published in early 2020. They conducted a survey of over 1,600 influencers to gather information about average rates across various areas, promo formats, and more.

Anothersurvey conducted in 2022by influencer marketing software IZEA saw similar results. Their findings showed us that across all social media platforms, men make 30% more than women, charging $2,978 per post compared to $2,289.

While this gap has dropped since 2019, it increased from 2020 and has existed for the last seven years.

有影响力的人CRM Klear还在2019年和2020年进行了自己的研究，以发现影响者定价的差异，并震惊地发现，男性和女性影响者之间存在如此巨大的薪酬差距。

They discovered anaverage $128 difference between the two’s rates，从2019年到2020年增加了20美元。

Everywhere we look, we’re seeing these same statistics. Some data even dives down deeper to let us know what discrepancies there are with specific types of posts and formats. Let’s take a look.

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Instagram帖子

They discovered that of their respondents, male influencers make an average of about 7% more than female influencers for a single sponsored Instagram post.

Male influencers charged $1,411 for the average Instagram post while women charged $1,315. And mega influencers with 100,000 followers and up had a 9% discrepancy, with men charging $2,643 on average and women charging $2,420.

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Instagram Stories

When it comes to Instagram stories, the discrepancy was even bigger, with male influencers making 34% more than female influencers. Men charged an average of $809 compared to the $633 that women charged.

We actually saw the opposite with micro-influencers with women making 47% more than men, but then there was a massive jump with men making 92% more.

However, IZEA’s data saw that for the first time ever, women are consistently making more than men for Instagram stories content—potentially due to their high engagement rates.

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Multiple Content Types

赞助内容和促销包括multiple content types, we see the biggest gender pay gap of them all. Men are earning nearly 50% more than women, charging an average of $3,051 to women’s $2,040 for an Instagram post and story, and charging an average of $4,042 to women’s $2,704 for an Instagram post, story,和video.

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Why Are We Seeing Gender Income Inequality in Influencers?

First things first, let’s see if we can get to the root of the problem. Is it branding? Level of promotion? Level of work? Or is it just sexism, plain and simple?

Wired tends to lean towards to latter option in their2019 pieceasking why women are called “influencers” while men are called “content creators.” For some, it may be a matter of self-branding. Men prefer to call themselves “digital creators” or “gamers” or whatever industry they’re in.

However, even if a woman prefers not to use the term “influencer,” she still tends to get branded as one. And if she’s streaming video games, she’s referred to as a “female gamer,” rather than just a “gamer.”

According to Wired, “Many men of the internet will fracture their own vertebrae to avoid being called influencers, even when their work—building a brand, getting #sponsored, promoting products and themselves—fits the definition.”

In many full-time jobs, people try to blame the gender pay gap on a number of different things: women opting for less strenuous jobs, taking time off for childcare, not negotiating to the level that men do, etc.

However, these are all rooted in sexism. And in the gig economy, especially in the world of influencers where male and female influencers and content creators are doing the same level of work and promotion for their partners, none of these factors come into play.

了解为什么有性别薪酬差距，或者基于种族，地区，性别，您拥有什么收入不平等 - 是与之抗争的第一步。我们都需要了解，共同点是性别歧视。

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How to Combat Influencer Income Inequality

Any gender pay gap—especially for doing the same job—is unfair discrimination. We should all be looking for ways to minimize this, with the goal eventually to eliminate it completely.

There are a few ways we can all work together to ensure that influencers with the same level of following are getting paid the same for their work.

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Help the Fight Against Influencer Income Inequality

Knowing there’s a problem is the first step in stopping it. Make sure you’re paying your influencers equally based on their level of following. Keep the conversation about pay open amongst influencers. And keep an eye on thestate of influencer marketingto see if our efforts are paying off.