Women make up the majority of paid influencers and creators. But the paychecks they make pale in comparison to those of their male counterparts.
A report on equality in the creator economy release by Izea, an influencer marketing and research firm, found that female creators made up 83% of influencer marketing deals in 2021, while male creators made up 15%. But across platforms, women made on average $2,289 per post while men made about 30% more at an average rate of $2,978 per post last year.
"Female dominance in influencer marketing may not yet be at risk, but the widening pay gap and shrinking share of deals is worth noting," the report reads.
The only platform to buck this trend was Instagram for its Story sponsorships. On average, women were paid $962 per story in 2021, roughly 60% more than the average $609 that men made per story, which the report claims is driven by women getting higher engagement rates on their posts.
The pay gap increased from last year, when men made 24% more on average. In 2019, there was a 47% gap between average payment per post; women made $1,138 on average compared to men's average of $2,152 per post.
Platforms are competing to lure in creators with promises of payment: Instagram and Facebook are paying people for short-form reels, TikTok has the Creator Fund and Twitter jumped into the monetization fray with Ticketed Spaces, Super Follows and Tip Jars. But brand deals still reign as the best way for creators to get paid, with the market forecasted to reach over $4 billion in 2022, according to Insider Intelligence.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE