Podcast 36: Pay, gender, location & skills – the state of UK copywriting

Everybody’s talking ‘bout the Pro Copywriters’ Survey – and no wonder: it revealed a 28% gender pay gap in UK copywriting.

But the understandable outcry over the gender pay issue may have drawn attention away from a few other juicy findings in the survey. Stories of a huge London price premium, an all-round lack of training, and a university education apparently harming your earning potential. A hint (if you squint at the stats a certain, determined way) of workaholic Yorkshire writers and lazy Scots.

The survey provoked some (ahem) lively debate around gender, pricing, training and sector specialisms at our recent #b2bcopychat on Twitter (see the Storify below) – so in this, the 36^th episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, we thought we’d sprinkle a bit more fuel on the fire.

Radix’s MD, Fiona Campbell-Howes, Content Marketing Manager Emily King and I pick out our personal highlights of the discussion so far, and ask:

• Which qualifications impress copywriting recruiters – or is it all about experience?
• Why on earth don’t more copywriters specialise?
• Does anybody – male or female – really negotiate over pay?
• Do Yorkshire copywriters really work 40% harder than Scottish counterparts? *
• Is there any discernible advantage to hiring a copywriter based in London? **

(Fiona may or may not also imply that the best writers all naturally gravitate West. You might think that, Fiona; we couldn’t possibly comment.)

You can listen in the player at the top of the page – or to download the episode, right click here.

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* Hint: no.

** Another hint: HELL NO.