The average salary for marketing and creative professionals is £41,110, according to the mad.co.uk and the SG Group Salary & Benefits Survey.

The survey reveals that 94% of respondents received a salary increase at their last salary review, of which client service managers and managing consultants received the largest average pay rise (13% and 10% respectively).

In the freelance and interim survey, 29% of the poll said that they had received or negotiated a pay rise during an assignment, thanks to the fluid nature of freelancing and changes in their initial role.

A majority of freelance respondents said that they expected to be paid more than permanent staff - the rate has to make up for a lack of paid holiday, pension contributions and sick pay for most - and 82% said that they believe they are being paid fairly.

Branwell Johnson, editor of mad.co.uk, says: “It’s pleasing to see in an anxious economic climate that more than 90% of respondents received a reasonable pay rise. It suggests that the marketing and creative industries are still healthy places in which to seek employment and employers value capable staff and want to retain them. However, it’s a shame that the pay differential between men and women has not closed at all and this needs to be addressed if the sector is to be seen as a 21st century workplace which rewards on merit, not gender.”