Graphic Designer vs. UX Designer Salary: Full Pay Comparison
BLS tracks UX work under web and digital interface designers, and the wage gap with graphic design shows up at every percentile — here is where it sits.
By Marisol Teague · Oct 26, 2026 · 8 min read
On national US wage data, UX design pays more than graphic design at every level. The median annual wage for graphic designers was $62,960 in May 2025, while web and digital interface designers — the category that covers most UX design jobs — had a median annual wage of $104,000 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). That is a gap of $41,040 a year, or about 65 percent, at the midpoint.
The gap widens at the top and narrows at the bottom, and it is driven mostly by which industries hire each role. All figures below are US wage data; pay outside the US is set by different national surveys and does not follow these numbers.
Side-by-Side Pay Comparison
There is no separate federal wage category called "UX designer." The closest official match is web and digital interface designers, which is where most UX, UI and product design roles are counted. Graphic designers have their own category. Every figure below is an annual wage, not hourly, and each is either a median or a percentile as labelled.
| Dimension (all annual wages) | Graphic designer | UX / web and digital interface designer |
|---|---|---|
| Median annual wage, May 2025 (BLS) | $62,960 | $104,000 |
| Lowest 10 percent, May 2025 (BLS) | under $39,520 | under $53,750 |
| Highest 10 percent, May 2025 (BLS) | over $104,910 | over $201,550 |
| Median in the role's top-paying listed industry, May 2025 (BLS) | $63,780 (specialized design services) | $133,260 (finance and insurance) |
| US employment, 2025 | 253,100 jobs (BLS, 2025) | 132,700 jobs (O*NET OnLine, 2025) |
| Projected employment change, 2025–35 | −2 percent, or −4,200 jobs (BLS, 2025) | +5 percent, or +11,300 jobs, for web developers and digital designers overall (BLS, 2025) |
Two things to hold onto. First, the top end is where the two careers separate hardest: a graphic designer in the top tenth earns over $104,910 a year, which is roughly the median for a UX designer at $104,000 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).
Second, these are wage figures. If a tech employer quotes you "total compensation" of, say, $160,000 including equity and an annual bonus, that number is not comparable to the $104,000 median — compare base salary to base salary, then price the bonus and equity separately.
For the current version of any of these numbers, check the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook pages for Graphic Designers and for Web Developers and Digital Designers, and the OEWS wage tables, which are republished each year.
Pay by Experience and Location
Federal wage data does not publish "years of experience" bands. What it publishes is percentiles, and percentiles are the usual stand-in: the bottom tenth is dominated by new and part-year workers, the median by mid-career workers, the top tenth by senior, specialist and lead roles. Rows below pair the two occupations at the same tier so the figures sit beside each other.
| Tier (matched units) | Graphic designer | UX / web and digital interface designer | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry tier — lowest 10 percent, annual, May 2025 (BLS) | under $39,520 | under $53,750 | $14,230 |
| Mid-career — median, annual, May 2025 (BLS) | $62,960 | $104,000 | $41,040 |
| Senior tier — highest 10 percent, annual, May 2025 (BLS) | over $104,910 | over $201,550 | $96,640 |
| Median expressed hourly (annual ÷ 2,080 hours) | about $30.27 per hour | $50.00 per hour | about $19.73 per hour |
| Median expressed monthly (annual ÷ 12) | about $5,247 per month | about $8,667 per month | about $3,420 per month |
| Highest-paying listed industry, median annual, May 2025 (BLS) | $63,780, specialized design services | $133,260, finance and insurance | $69,480 |
The hourly and monthly rows are arithmetic conversions of the same BLS annual medians, included so you can compare against a contract rate or a monthly offer without doing the maths twice. They assume a full 2,080-hour year; freelance graphic design and contract UX work rarely bill that evenly.
On location. The national medians above do not tell you what a job in your state pays. Wages for both occupations differ by state and metro area, and the BLS OEWS program publishes state and metropolitan wage tables for each occupation code — graphic designers and web and digital interface designers both appear there. Look up your own state in the most recent OEWS release rather than applying the national median locally. If you are working outside the US, these figures do not apply at all; use your own country's national statistics office or a dated national salary survey.
On employer type. The industry row above is the clearest signal of what employer choice is worth. A UX designer in finance and insurance sat at a $133,260 median annual wage in May 2025, while a graphic designer in specialized design services — a top industry for that role — sat at $63,780 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). Same year, same measure, a $69,480 difference.
Why the Pay Gap Exists
The gap is not about talent or how hard the work is. Three structural things explain most of it.
It is not licensing, and it is not education length. Neither occupation requires a state license in the US, so there is no credential bottleneck propping up UX pay, and neither has meaningful union coverage that sets a rate. Education does not explain it either, and that surprises people: typical entry-level education for graphic designers is a bachelor's degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025), and ONET places graphic designers in Job Zone Four, "Considerable Preparation Needed," where most occupations require a four-year degree (ONET OnLine, 2025). Meanwhile, educational requirements for web developers and digital designers range from a high school diploma to a bachelor's degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). The lower-credential group holds the $104,000 median; the higher-credential group holds the $62,960 median (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). More schooling is not what is being paid for.
Industry demand is moving in opposite directions. Employment of graphic designers is projected to decline 2 percent from 2025 to 2035, a loss of 4,200 jobs, while overall employment of web developers and digital designers is projected to grow 5 percent over the same decade, a gain of 11,300 jobs (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). A shrinking occupation with 253,100 workers in 2025 and about 16,000 projected openings a year (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025) faces more applicants per opening than a growing one. ONET puts web and digital interface designers at 132,700 workers in 2025 with 8,300 projected openings across 2025–2035 (ONET OnLine, 2025) — a smaller, growing pool.
Who writes the cheque matters more than the job title. UX work is bought heavily by sectors with large software budgets: the top-paying listed industry for web and digital interface designers, finance and insurance, had a $133,260 median annual wage in May 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). Graphic design is bought largely by design agencies, publishers and marketing teams, where specialized design services paid a $63,780 median annual wage in the same month (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). The $69,480 difference between those two industry medians is close to the whole story. If you are a graphic designer considering a move, moving industry is the lever with a number attached to it.
One caution on how the numbers are framed. Graphic design has a large freelance and project-based segment where income arrives as invoices rather than salary, so an annual median of $62,960 does not describe a predictable paycheque for everyone in the category. On the UX side, employers in tech and finance often quote base plus bonus plus equity; the $104,000 median is a wage figure, and the extras sit on top of it rather than inside it.
Frequently asked questions
Does a graphic designer always earn less than a UX designer?
No. The top 10 percent of graphic designers earned more than $104,910 a year in May 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025), which is above the $104,000 median annual wage for web and digital interface designers in the same month. A senior graphic designer can out-earn a mid-level UX designer; the difference is that the UX median starts where the graphic design top decile begins.
What is a realistic first-year figure for a UX designer?
For web and digital interface designers, the category covering most UX roles, the lowest 10 percent earned under $53,750 annually in May 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). That percentile is the best available stand-in for early-career pay, since BLS does not publish wages by years of experience. Your state figure may sit above or below it — check the BLS OEWS state tables for your state.
Is it worth switching from graphic design to UX for the money?
The arithmetic on the graphic design side is this: your occupation had a $62,960 median annual wage in May 2025 and is projected to decline 2 percent, or 4,200 jobs, from 2025 to 2035 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). Moving into web and digital interface design puts you in a group with a $104,000 median annual wage and projected growth of 5 percent, or 11,300 jobs, over the same decade (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). The money argument is a $41,040 annual median difference; whether you clear it depends on the industry you land in, not the title.
Which industry pays graphic designers the most?
Among the top industries listed for graphic designers in May 2025, specialized design services paid the highest median annual wage at $63,780 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025) — only $820 above the $62,960 overall graphic design median. By contrast, the top listed industry for UX-side work, finance and insurance, paid a $133,260 median annual wage. Industry choice moves UX pay far more than it moves graphic design pay.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Graphic Designers : Occupational Outlook Handbook (2025)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Web Developers and Digital Designers : Occupational Outlook Handbook (2025)
Written by
Marisol Teague
Marisol oversees how Preferred Careers thinks about work itself — not just how to get a job, but why certain ones feel worth keeping. She's drawn to the quiet negotiations people make between ambition and sanity, and edits with an eye for the sentence that gives the game away.
