The salary of a Creative Director in the United States varies depending on several factors, including experience, location, education level, marketing trend and company sizes.
As of March 01, 2025, the average hourly pay of Creative Director in the United States is $73. While Salary.com is seeing that the highest pay for Creative Director in the US can go up to $95 and the lowest down to $53, but most earn between $62 and $84. Salary.com shows the average base salary (core compensation), as well as the average total cash compensation for the job of Creative Director in the United States.
| Annual Salary |
Monthly Pay |
Weekly Pay |
Hourly Wage |
|
| 75th Percentile | $175,089 | $14,591 | $3,367 | $84 |
| Average | $150,887 | $12,574 | $2,902 | $73 |
| 25th Percentile | $129,544 | $10,795 | $2,491 | $62 |
As of March 01, 2025, Salary.com is seeing that an entry-level Creative Director with under 1 year experience makes about $139,511. With less than 2 years of experience, a mid-level Creative Director makes around $141,083. After 2-4 years, the Creative Director pay rises to about $143,599. Those senior Creative Director with 5-8 years of experience earn roughly $146,744, and those Creative Director having 8 years or more experience is expected to earn about $152,511 on average.
| Levels | Salary |
|---|---|
| Entry Level Creative Director | $139,511 |
| Intermediate Level Creative Director | $141,083 |
| Senior Level Creative Director | $143,599 |
| Specialist Level Creative Director | $146,744 |
| Expert Level Creative Director | $152,511 |
| Entry Level | 8% |
| Mid Level | 6% |
| Senior Level | 5% |
| Top Level | 3% |
| Experienced | 1% |
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from state to state due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of March 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of Creative Director is $166,429 in California and in Massachusetts, the average annual salary goes to $164,166. While in New Jersey, a Creative Director earns $165,373 per year.
What Am I Worth?
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from city to city due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of March 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of Creative Director in San Francisco, CA is $188,609 and in New York, NY, the average annual salary goes to $176,237. While a Creative Director earns $169,145 per year in Boston, MA.
For those exploring the changing dynamics of Creative Director salaries, Salary.com offers detailed insights through our Job Trending in CA Labor Market analysis. As of March 01, 2025, our research highlights a notable shift in Creative Director compensation over the past six years. For instance, the median salary has moved from $132,370 in 2023 to about $129,237 in 2024 (for a comprehensive analysis of Creative Director salary trends, click here). It's crucial to consider several elements, including geographical location, experience level, industry demand, and economic development, as they play a significant role in influencing salary variations.
Salary.com job board provides millions of Creative Director information for you to search for. Click on search button below to see Creative Director job openings or enter a new job title here.
Here are companies hiring for Creative Director and their salaries, click below for more details.
| Core Compensation | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Base Salary | $150,887 | 67.1% | ||
| Bonus | $13,785 | 6.1% | ||
| Value of Benefits | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Social Security | $12,597 | 5.6% | ||
| 401K/403B | $6,916 | 3.1% | ||
| Disability | $3,293 | 1.5% | ||
| Healthcare | $8,352 | 3.7% | ||
| Pension | $8,892 | 4.0% | ||
| Time Off | $20,267 | 9.0% | ||
| Total Compensation | $224,991 | 100% | ||
| Degree Level | % of user with this level of education |
|---|---|
| No Diploma | 0.7% |
| High School | 6.0% |
| Associates | 8.1% |
| Bachelors | 67.9% |
| Masters | 16.7% |
| Doctorate | 0.6% |
What Am I Worth?
Creative Director provides leadership and direction for all phases of creative development work from concept to completion. Designs and implements policies and standards that reinforce the organization's branding strategy and goals. Being a Creative Director promotes excellence in design thinking and a creative strategy for services, products and programs. Interprets stakeholder requirements to produce effective creative concepts and designs. Additionally, Creative Director recruits and develops a team of designers, copywriters, project managers and vendors. Develops creative briefs and design concepts to meet the business objectives of the organization. Studies current trends and technologies to adopt the most effective tools and techniques across all media. Typically requires a bachelor's degree. Typically reports to top management. The Creative Director typically manages through subordinate managers and professionals in larger groups of moderate complexity. Provides input to strategic decisions that affect the functional area of responsibility. May give input into developing the budget. To be a Creative Director typically requires 3+ years of managerial experience. Capable of resolving escalated issues arising from operations and requiring coordination with other departments.
Specify the abilities and skills that a person needs in order to carry out the specified job duties. Each competency has five to ten behavioral assertions that can be observed, each with a corresponding performance level (from one to five) that is required for a particular job.
Leadership: Knowledge of and ability to employ effective strategies that motivate and guide other members within our business to achieve optimum results.
Photography: Photography is the art, application and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed in many fields of science, manufacturing (e.g., photolithography), and business, as well as its more direct uses for art, film and video production, recreational purposes, hobby, and mass communication. Typically, a lens is used to focus the light reflected or emitted from objects into a real image on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a timed exposure. With an electronic image sensor, this produces an electrical charge at each pixel, which is electronically processed and stored in a digital image file for subsequent display or processing. The result with photographic emulsion is an invisible latent image, which is later chemically "developed" into a visible image, either negative or positive depending on the purpose of the photographic material and the method of processing. A negative image on film is traditionally used to photographically create a positive image on a paper base, known as a print, either by using an enlarger or by contact printing.
Digital Design: Ability to use tools and software to create and present information or a product through a digital interface.
