The Experience Economy's Hidden Inequalities: Refocusing the Value of Event Professionals

Event professionals are the people who build the collective and collaborative experiences we rely on. They manage budgets, calm stakeholders, coordinate teams, solve last-minute crises, and design moments that create measurable business outcomes. And yet, in many markets these roles are paid less, on average, than other management jobs that require similar levels of responsibility.

Beneath the polished surface of the events, festivals, conferences, and corporate programs that communities, brands and organisations rely on lies a professional ecosystem marked by imbalance. Despite being numerically dominated by women, the events industry continues to reflect the systemic inequalities that pervade broader corporate structures; disparities in recognition, compensation, leadership opportunities, and wellbeing. While anecdotal evidence of gender inequity abounds, the lack of rigorous data has often obscured its scale and significance, allowing long-standing patterns to persist unchecked. 

As advocates for the event management industry this blog looks at why that is, compares pay and career pathways with similar roles (project managers and marketing managers), and uses industry and government data to be clear and evidence-based about what’s happening; not to assign blame, but to help event professionals, employers, and other industry advocates be conscious of these gaps and refocus the value of event professionals.

Doing More, Earning Less?

Salary benchmarking sites and job market data give us a useful, if imperfect, snapshot. It’s hard to find a lot of extremely precise, apples-to-apples global data comparing event managers vs project managers / marketing managers in exactly parallel roles, but there is enough insight to sketch a credible picture, which shows some meaningful gaps and inconsistencies, even in similar responsibility levels.

Event professionals commonly combine what would be multiple distinct job functions in other disciplines:

• They are project managers (timelines, risk, budgets).
  
  
• They act as producers (technical delivery, AV logistics, run sheets).
  
  
• They perform marketing and content work (themes, speaker curation, comms).
  
  
• They take on customer experience and onsite operations (registration, hospitality, safety).
  
  
• They often negotiate sponsorships or vendor contracts (commercial skills).
  
  

This multi-disciplinary workload increases role complexity and responsibility. Yet when job families and pay bands are set, the hybrid nature of the role isn’t always fully recognised,  meaning event professionals are sometimes paid at a level that reflects a narrower job description than the one they actually do.

US

1. Event Manager — $88,927 (Glassdoor).
2. Project Manager — $104,759 (Glassdoor). 
3. Marketing Manager — $107,113 (Glassdoor).

UK

1. Event Manager — £37,158 (Glassdoor average / range shown across job sites). 
2. Project Manager — £52,500 (APM Salary & Market Trends Survey 2025).
3. Marketing Manager — £44,511 (Glassdoor median).

Australia

1. Event Manager — AU$72,847 (PayScale). - A$89,500 (Glassdoor)
2. Project Manager — AU$140,000 (Glassdoor average; ranges vary by source).
3. Marketing Manager — AU$110,000 (SEEK midpoint / market guides).

Important caveats:

1. These figures are affected strongly by geographic location, industry, seniority, and company size.
2. These are representative averages drawn from public salary sites (Glassdoor, PayScale, SEEK, SalaryExpert, APM, etc.). Different sources use different methodologies and sample sizes — ranges can be wide.
3. Titles and role scopes vary dramatically between organisations (e.g., an Event Manager at a small NGO vs. a Global Events Director at a tech firm). Seniority, industry, location, and bonuses/benefits change total compensation significantly.
4. Data is still spotty: not enough global, role-matched salary studies

Patterns:

Location & industry matter a lot. 

• In the US, senior roles in marketing + events or combined responsibilities tend to pay more. In the UK, project-management roles generally command higher base pay, especially in established sectors (IT, construction, services).

Scope & seniority widen the gap. 

• An Event Project Manager with oversight (budgets, teams, venues, logistics, hybrid/virtual tech etc.) in a large organisation may get closer to what a comparable Project Manager with similarly broad responsibilities earns. But many Event Manager roles have narrower scopes (smaller events, less budget, fewer direct reports), which drags down the average.

Market recognition and specialisation. 

• Marketing managers, or project managers in high-demand sectors, often benefit from clearer career laddering, specialist certifications, or scalable budgets (e.g. tech + digital). Event planning roles sometimes suffer from being seen as “operational / logistical support,” even though the skills are comparable (vendor management, stakeholder communication, timeline risk / contingency planning etc.).

Overall, the gap is consistent: event professionals (as a group) typically sit below project and marketing managers on average pay in several English-speaking markets. 

Therefore, this signifies a lack of recognition as it can be put forward that this discrepancy persists even though many event roles involve tightly comparable, and in some cases broader remit: stakeholder management, multi-vendor contracts, complex logistics, P&L ownership and delivery under strict deadlines.

The Gender Picture: The Progress We See & The Gaps We Don't

Multiple industry and academic studies point to a clear pattern: the events industry is numerically female, but leadership is disproportionately male. Because the event workforce is numerically female, the industry can suffer the same pay-penalty that research documents for other female-dominated professions; lower average pay and slower progression to top leadership roles. Cultural assumptions about who “belongs” in leadership and what leadership looks like also influence promotion and remuneration decisions.

1. IBTM’s Event Management Gender Equality Report (2022) released a global sample of 2000 people working within the event management industry and found 76.9% are women yet only 16% of the women included occupy directional positions in comparison to 32% of men.
   
   
2. IBTM took a sample of UK-based event management companies with 250 employees or more and found that for every £1 men receive, women are typically paid 88p for the same role.
   
   
3. According to a global report from PWC (2015), only 36% of women admitted that they would leave their place of work if they felt there was not a fair balance between how hard they work and the compensation they receive.
   
   
4. The PCMA / Business Events Sydney work on advancing women in business events commissioned to better understand gender representation; reports that women make up a large proportion of the business events workforce globally but are underrepresented in senior leadership roles. The project’s initial findings and related reporting document the disparity between overall workforce share and leadership share.
   
   
5. Other country-level data (U.S. occupational statistics and industry surveys) similarly show that “meeting and event planner” categories are majority female, sometimes above 70–80% in specific datasets, while pay and leadership representation lag.

Gap in Data = Gap in Action

It’s important to be precise: the existence of pay gaps and leadership disparities does not by itself prove discrimination. Many factors; market demand, bargaining power, skill shortages, occupational sorting, and historical job classification, interact to create outcomes. That said, the pattern (female-dominant workforce, fewer women in senior roles, lower average pay) is the same structural shape found in other sectors where gendered labour market dynamics affect pay and progression. It’s a legitimate signal for employers and industry bodies to investigate.

While gender inequality in the events industry is often discussed, there is a lack of comprehensive, quantitative data. It can be challenging to convey the urgency of addressing these disparities without comprehensive data to back it up. Without robust statistics, it’s difficult to move beyond awareness to actionable change, leaving patterns of inequity unaddressed and perpetuated. Collecting detailed, sector-wide data is essential not only to highlight the gaps but also to inform policies and initiatives that can create meaningful, measurable progress for women across all levels of the industry. A gap in data often mirrors a gap in action, and the patterns we can already see leave no doubt that change is overdue.

Taken together, the evidence points to a “majority workforce, minority leadership” paradox for events: many entry and mid-level roles are staffed by women, but men are overrepresented among senior titles and higher-paid positions. That pattern matters because it helps explain why overall average pay is depressed while leadership pay stays strong.

Practical Steps: Strategise Your Compensation

If you’re an event professional concerned about compensation or career trajectory, here are evidence-based strategies that can help:

1. Quantify your impact. Track KPIs that matter to stakeholders: leads generated, attendee NPS, sponsorship revenue, cost-per-attendee, post-event revenue attribution, and present those metrics in performance reviews. Data removes ambiguity.
   
   
2. Map your remit to comparable job families. When negotiating, show how your responsibilities align with project managers, program managers, or marketing managers, and ask for the corresponding job band.
   
   
3. Build specialist skills that command premiums. Technical skills (hybrid event platforms, virtual production, data analytics) and revenue-linked skills (sponsorship management) are in demand and often pay more.
   
   
4. Document wins and escalations. Keep a running record of crises handled, budgets managed, and cross-functional leadership moments. These are the inputs to promotions and higher bands.
   
   
5. Network & negotiate externally. Use market salary data to benchmark and be prepared to change roles or sectors when internal progression stalls.

How the Industry Can Redefine Value

For organisations and industry bodies wishing to close the gap and retain talent, steps include:

• Re-classify event roles where appropriate so job bands reflect strategic contribution rather than tactical function.
  
  
• Publish transparent pay bands by role/seniority to reduce bias in hiring and promotion.
  
  
• Invest in leadership pipelines and mentorship for event professionals, especially women seeking senior roles.
  
  
• Use measurement frameworks (event ROI dashboards, standardised post-event reporting) so the contribution of events is visible and comparable with other functions.
  
  
• Reward cross-disciplinary skills (tech, commercial, content) with clear compensation differentials.

Closing: Facts First, Action Second

Event professionals do work that is complex, cross-disciplinary and often high-stakes. The evidence we have shows a persistent mismatch between the responsibilities event professionals carry and the pay and leadership representation they receive. That mismatch is not a simple single-cause problem; it’s a structural issue involving job classification, measurement challenges, and historic occupational patterns.

For event professionals, the most practical route to narrowing the gap is measuring and communicating impact, growing scarce technical and commercial skills, and using market data in salary conversations. For employers and industry bodies, the priority is to make value visible and create transparent career pathways so those who design and deliver experiences are rewarded proportionately.

At Joi, we believe the future of events depends on how well we value the people who make them possible. Because when event professionals are given the recognition, resources, and respect they deserve, the entire industry shines brighter. We can’t have meaningful experiences without meaningful change and that starts with supporting those who make them possible.

It’s time to empower and refocus the value of our event professionals — so we can all continue to experience the Joi of events.

Sources & further reading:

• Average Events Manager salary (Australia) - Glassdoor. 
• Project Manager salary insights - SalaryExpert / Glassdoor / SEEK. 
• Marketing Manager salary benchmarks - Glassdoor / PayScale / SEEK. 
• “Advancing Women Leaders in the Business Events Industry” - PCMA / BESydney findings.
• WGEA Gender Equality Scorecard - Australia (2023–24).
• IBTM’s Event Management Gender Equality Report (2022)
• Event Industry News - “New gender equality report by IBTM highlights that MICE industry is still ‘dominated by women but run by men’” (2022) 
• PWC - “The female millennial: A new era of talent” (2015)