Can you retire young, pay your childrens’ way through college, travel the world, actually enjoy your life? What is exactly the expected income of a graphic web designer? Can you do everything that you want to, or is it just paycheck-to-paycheck? The answers that I found, have helped me understand exactly what type of life can be lend, when working as a graphic web designer.

In May of 2008 IOMA published a survey on the salary of graphic web designers. The survey includes the average salaries of differently employed graphic web designers from company employed designers to freelance designers, how location can effect income, and how experience affects a designers salary.

According to the Two Surveys Detail Pay for Web Designers the average company employed graphic web designer earns around $68,138. The lowest pay is about $15,000 while the highest is around $200,000. But a freelance designer will also make around the same average salary of $67,499. This is the result of a survey conducted by the Coroflote survey.

Experience is also a factor that needs to be considered when looking into how much a graphic web designer will make. Payscale has come to the conclusion that a graphic web designer with less than one year of experience can expect to make around $35,627, while a designer with 20 or more years of experience can make around $50, 825. Where you actually are affects how much you can make. The East and West coasts tend to have the higher salaries, while the Midwest has the lowest. The demand for graphic web designers are generally more on the coasts than in the center of the U.S. because that is where many companies have there hubs.

Of course this is only the results of a few combinedsurveys, so it is no where near complete, but it can help anyone looking for information. What a designer personally decides entirely depends on what a graphic web designer wants to do. Freelance designer can make just as much as what a company employed designer if they are good enough. And of course the more experience a graphic web designer has the better their salary will be.

If you, as a graphic web designer, need more securityor a more structured environment, then working for a company as a designer is probably the better choice. On the other hand, the more out going and independent graphic web designer, should defiantly think about working as a freelance designer. I personally think that whither of no, you choose to work for a company or freelance that, considering a internship or an early job for a well know design company is excellent idea. It’s good for references and experience.

Sources:  IOMA’s Report on Salary Surveys. New York: May 2008