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Pay Gap Narrows For Female Magazine Editors

In 2008, the average salary for men in the magazine business who held the title of editor or executive editor was $75,500, while the average pay for women in the same position was $56,400. But in 2012, that gap closed, with men making an average of $84,200, and women $85,700. And when looking at all magazine-editor categories combined, women’s salaries rose at a greater rate than men’s. Even if that bump is attributable to a few women taking on high-paying editing jobs at the top of the income spectrum, rather than to across-the-board gains, that’s still a sign that women are moving up the ladder to positions where they have more control as well as more money.

The pay gap among the rank-and-file of magazine employees remains significant, and higher up the ladder it reappears:

Women who hold the title of managing or senior editor made an average of $58,200 in 2012, while men earned $63,600. And it gets worse higher up the masthead, where the average male editorial director or editor-in-chief was taking home $100,800 in 2012 to his female counterpart’s $85,100, a divide that’s actually bigger than the \$11,600 that separated those averages in 2008.

So pretty mitigated good news, but good news nonetheless.

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