Cities with the Highest Wages
On average fashion designers earn 10 percent more in the suburbs of New York City than in the City itself. Nassau and Suffolk counties, which encompass Long Island and extend 150 miles from New York City, have a mean annual wage of $87,420 for fashion designers. The Newark and Union, New Jersey area, also on the outskirts of New York City, have the second highest mean annual wage: $83,000. Portland, Maine (including the nearby cities of South Portland and Biddeford) ranks third at $82,340. With a mean annual wage of $81,140, Boca Raton, Florida is next. Of the five top paying metropolitan areas, New York City pays the least: $80,270. However, approximately one-third of all salaried fashion design jobs in the United States are in the New York City area, compared to the very few jobs in third-ranking Portland, Maine.
As with many professions, fashion designers tend to start out at the lower end of the salary spectrum and gradually advance to well-paying positions. Depending on the employer and the location, salaried fashion designers may enjoy excellent benefit packages including health insurance, vacation and sick time, and 401k contributions. While 99 percent of fashion designers won’t earn the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year—or even millions of dollars a year—the few fashion design superstars earn, they can make a good living in their chosen career.
Cities with the Highest Employment Levels
The metropolitan areas that pay fashion designers the best salaries may not be the best places to look for jobs. That’s because they may not have many jobs. If you are an up-and-coming fashion designer, would you rather look for a job where the pay is the highest or where there are an abundance of jobs in your field most? There’s no right answer; it’s just something to think about.
In 2008, nearly one-third (7,140) of the over 22,000 fashion design jobs in the country were in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. The Los Angeles area had close to 2,600 of the jobs. Of the five metropolitan areas with the highest employment levels, Columbus, Ohio had 420 fashion design jobs, the San Francisco area had 310, and Portland, Maine had 60. While Columbus, San Francisco, and Portland are in the top five, their contributions to the employment of fashion designers are meager in comparison to New York and Los Angeles.
Portland, Maine makes it into the top five listings for both employment levels and salaries. In fact, at $82,340, for mean annual wages Portland, Maine beats out all the other metropolitan areas with high employment levels. Remember, however, that Portland had only 60 jobs for fashion designers in 2008.
The New York City area ($80,270) and the San Francisco area ($80,160) are nearly tied for second place. The Los Angeles area comes in third, at $78,200. Trailing behind is Columbus, Ohio, at $58,430. Even though Los Angeles is third, its high level of employment for fashion designers puts it right next to New York City as the place with the best job opportunities.
