Recruitment company Sophie Macpherson Ltd. (SML), with offices in the United States and England, today released its first SML Art Market Salary Report, which examines art world salaries in both countries. The firm plans to publish the report every two years. The 2023 edition takes into account data covering the period from January to December 2022, drawn variously from the salaries negotiated by the company that year and the recruitment budgets posted by the employers. SML was able to obtain this information in part due to recent regulatory developments in the UK and many US states requiring greater pay transparency from employers. The report offers base salaries, excluding bonuses and commissions. Salaries can be high because SML, like most recruiters, tends to deal with wealthier clients.
Unsurprisingly, the highest salaries were in auction houses and shopping galleries. Senior business development and sales executives there could expect salaries of up to $425,000 in the US and up to £250,000 (around $312,000) in the UK. At the bottom of the financial ladder in both companies were assistants. A gallery assistant in the UK can expect to earn between £23,000 and £30,000 ($28,700 and $37,000) per year, while their American counterpart could earn between $40,000 and $70,000 over the same period. . Other relatively low value roles included liaison with art fair exhibitor relations, which paid between $60,000 and $85,000 in the US and between £24,000 and £36,000 (30,000 $ and $45,000) in the UK; among the highest-paying jobs were communications management positions, which offered up to $163,000 in the US and £110,000 ($137,000) in the UK.
It should be noted that wages in both countries have risen precipitously in the wake of the pandemic, with American employers more eager than their British counterparts to serve the sauce. Additionally, SML found two areas of employment growth in Europe, excluding the UK, and in the former New York, USA, particularly Los Angeles. The first change reflects a rush for talent in the shadow of Brexit, which has necessarily made it more complicated to import and export art; this latest drastic change indicates LA’s growing influence in the art world.
