Web designer salary in the US
The web designer salary is the extra reason web designers finally have to feel good about themselves, aside from their creative talent!
If only years ago one would rather create web sites and web elements as part of a hobby and not for a real job, nowadays things are different.
Despite the not-so-bright predictions about the global economy and the increasing popularity of the outsourcing phenomenon, US web designers still have plenty of work opportunities on the continent. According to the American Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010 the mean hourly wage in the web design industry was $26.92. That would be roughly $56,000 as an annual web designer salary!
However, these numbers are brute approximations based on the skill level of the average Joe. People skills, a problem-solving attitude and advanced studies are usually the web designer’s jump from $50,000 to at least $60,000 annually.
From 1991, when the first web sites were created by Tim Berners Lee (also the creator of the World Wide Web) to this day, web design continued to evolve until it became a serious industry and a worthy career path. Nowadays the attributes of a web designer include what 20 years ago involved three or four jobs. The modern web designer is no longer the person who simply formats the text styles and colors or the person who creates the links between different virtual addresses.
The modern web designer is a visionary; a person who not only has to satisfy his boss and the assigned clients, but also the public – the Internet users who generate traffic for the clients. A website is no longer a static online presentation page; it includes images, audio and video files, PHP scripts, Java applications and much, much more.
Career Path and Financial Perspectives
If you’re a student at a Faculty of Computer Science, then you should know that a bachelor’s degree in graphic design followed by 4-6 years of experience in web design or a related area will grant you the title of senior web designer, fattening your bank account with a beautiful web designer salary of up to $83,450 annually in the US. The only drawbacks of this perspective are perhaps the fact that it usually takes 1 to 3 years to reach the level of experience required for a promotion in the field of web design and the fact that the web design industry requires constant adaptation to newer and more advanced technologies.
However, the inconvenience of the long waiting terms for promotions can be easily put behind by accepting and developing individual design projects for a good wed designer salary earned as freelancer. If an inexperienced, entry-level web designer will get around $200-$300 for a simple small website homepage mock-up, a senior web designer will generate between $750 and $900 for the same job. And the best part is that the market is constantly growing and looking for better, more expensive material.
In conclusion, whether you’ve just made the first steps of your web design career or you’re still a freelancer web designer student, there is absolutely no reason why you should hesitate or look back. The road ahead is very promising, but the challenges are tough and they require a lot of hard work and talent. If you think you have what it takes to make it in the industry, then you are just a few web elements and color gradients away from a six figure web designer salary!