One account director, who is involved in the hiring process, said: “Approximately 10 years ago I started out at an agency as an assistant on £17k. I remember having to fight tooth and nail to even bump it to £19k. They were a lovely team, I worked there for years and eventually wound up on £28k as a junior account manager before moving on. More recently, I'm seeing a lot of junior folk, with no existing experience, wanting to be hired for £25k and over. I keep thinking, I had to work for four years to get that kind of salary. [It’s probably] just a reflection of inflation/cost of living. However, I do think £22-25k to take the first step on the ladder with no experience is very reasonable when compared with other industries.”

One senior account executive, currently employed at one of the top PR firms in the UK, revealed to PRmoment: “I’m a senior account executive on £31k living in London, and although I’ve just passed into ‘earning the London Living Wage’, it’s better termed the ‘London Surviving Wage’. I can now just about pay my rent, my bills and my grocery expenses – but it doesn’t leave much left over for transport, or God forbid, fun. In our household, we’re prepped for another winter with no heating; we switched it on once last year and made do with blankets and extra layers instead, as it’s just not affordable. Senior staff love to remind us how they had it back in their day, without thinking about the fact that their £22k salary as an Intern adjusted for inflation is actually worth about £30k nowadays – nowhere near the paltry £25k our interns are paid.”

As featured in its 2024 PR salary guide, Latte revealed that based on data from 10 London PR agencies, the average entry level (interns, account coordinators, account assistants and junior account executivesP) salary is £25,585.

The report says: “There is an upward trend towards agencies offering London Living Wage. This is currently £13.15/hour. Entry level salaries have seen a significant increase in recent years, a change that was long overdue. The cost of living in London has been rising well before the inflationary pressures of the past 12 months, but junior salaries never kept pace.”

It also highlighted an upcoming struggle for leaders and PR professionals when it comes to wages: “PR leaders have a tough job ahead of them. Junior talent are becoming more vocal about starting salaries, yet for the agency side at least, service fees remain the same. There isn’t an endless pool of money and the juggling act has become front and centre for leaders. Entry level roles are competitive and for talent, getting a foot in the door is the crucial first step on their career ladder. The good news is, if you learn the ropes quickly, you can expect promotions within six to 12 months.”

Richard Stone, founder and MD at PR firm Stone Junction : "PR salaries often feel like they’re lagging behind other industries, especially when stacked against other professional services like law or finance. It’s like trying to win a race with one foot tied behind your back because without good salaries, you can’t expect to deliver good work. In turn, bad work reduces fees and thus salaries.

“At Stone Junction, we’ve been determined to close this gap through our ‘23 by 23’ initiative, which involved raising every salary in the company by £3k in 2023, as well as increasing minimum holidays to 23 days. Working to lift wages so they better reflect the talent and hard work in our industry is just the right thing to do.

“One of the results of this, and other initiatives we have put in place at Stone Junction, is that we very rarely get complaints about salaries. This is because everyone can give themselves salary increases, and promotions, without anything other than confirmation from the line managers, by hitting numerically measured SMART objectives. Because this is the only way to achieve a salary increase, it means that we have no salary gap in any context, which again reduces the need to complain.

"We need to boost the perceived value of PR so the industry can raise fees and, in turn, offer fairer pay at every level."

“This is important to me because, at no stage in my own career did I ever feel that the salary I earned, or the ones I could move jobs to earn, reflected the work or skill I brought to my role, and I just don’t want that to be the case here.

“But this is more than just a company-level issue—it’s a challenge for the entire sector. To truly fix it, we need to boost the perceived value of PR, so the industry can raise fees and, in turn, offer fairer pay at every level. The shame is that what actually happens is clients request cuts in day rate and pitch stage, some agencies provide this and then the entire industry is forced to chase cheap or choose to win fewer clients by not playing the game.”

Employee benefits and wellbeing consultant, Steve Herbert said: "Firstly, although the spike in the cost-of-living and cost of borrowing appears to have passed (and in the case of inflation actually returned to normal levels) this does not automatically mean that the cost-of-living problems have been resolved for employees. The reality is that income has lagged behind expenditure for many British workers ever since the financial crisis of 2007, and particularly over the first half of this decade. So although the worst of the crisis may now be behind us, many PR employees will still be facing an affordability challenge on so many everyday costs and essentials.

"Most employers in the PR space will have been supportive on salary payments in recent years, but balancing income and outgoings to stay in the black must still be their first priority in a near stagnant economy. So, I would suggest that PR companies wishing to support the financial wellbeing of their staff should look beyond salary reviews in isolation.

"For instance, a greater use of remote working and scheduling in-person meetings away from the peak-rate rush hours will help workers control commuting and travel costs. And offering free use of the staff car park, or negotiating reduced rate parking nearby, can also be very helpful. Both of these options can support both employees and all those self-employed contractors that are so often connected to the PR industry also.

"Employers can also look at increasing the use of their existing employee benefits offerings. Most traditional 'insured' employee benefits now also provide a range of free to use additional features that can provide practical support to employees at no cost to either party. I would encourage employers to lift the lid on their current benefits offering, isolate benefits that may not be understood or utilised, and then ensure that workers know what is available, and how to access those tools."