Gender pay gap disparity in Indian influencer industry: Reality or myth?

In the traditional media space that is dominated by films, television shows and advertisements, it is an open fact that male artistes get paid more than their women counterparts. However, the pay disparity when it comes to the influencer industry is minimal and may also be reversed for many categories, as per experts. 

According to a top executive of an influencer marketing agency, many first-generation women creators are at the top of the industry and their brand value is higher than their male counterparts.

“MostlySane gets an average of a million views on her long-form comedy sketches, she charges a cost of Rs 25 lakhs for an integration. From an eagle-eye perspective for a million views, 25 lakhs is a lot of money. However, it is justified because of her brand value and because she is one of the ‘original’ creators who started back in the day,” the executive said. 

“Kusha Kapila, Dolly Singh, Aishwarya Mohanraj, although they are at the same level but came in a little late. If you compare them to their parallels like Ankush Bahuguna or Vishnu Kaushal, the pay scale is almost the same,” revealed the executive. 

Minesh Santani

Adding to this, Minesh Santani, Founder and CEO of Socio Spy Media, stated that disparity is not between the genders but rather between the urban and rural influencers. “The digital world has surpassed that difference between male versus female. The differentiation and disparity are more on the grounds of an urban content creator and tier-two content creator, wherein creators from the latter areas are charging brands very less.” 

Is it a supply-demand issue? 

Bhumika Thakkar

Bhumika Thakkar, a beauty and fashion influencer revealed that there are not many male influencers in the industry. “When it comes to brands like male grooming, skincare etc they have a limited number of choices for a blogger/influencer.” 

“It has nothing to do with gender, there were only a limited number of male influencers a few years ago. However, that is also changing over the past two years. So, when it comes to pricing, it will eventually be equal,” she added. 

Rachit Juneja

According to Rachit Juneja, Co-founder of Sheeko, an influencer marketing and branded content management agency, the opposite disparity exists just like it does in the modelling industry where females have more opportunities. He said a lot of it also depends on the category and the kind of content the influencer is famous for. 

“In traditional advertising, you can have an Akshay Kumar endorsing flour and rice and earning more. On digital, a majority of creators are female. However, there are also male creators like Ranvir Brar in the food category who obviously charge more because they get in the views despite many women influencers being present in the recipe-creator category,” he added. 

How are female influencers getting compensated in comparison to men? 

Experts stated that female influencers pull in an audience of more value, which means their followers are more genuine when it comes to decision-making, purchasing power etc. Hence more and more advertisers are finding their value with them. 

“Female creators are getting more from fashion and lifestyle brands. They are paid more because they have high paying audiences. For example, my mom spends more on clothes than my dad. If Komal Pandey is targeting my mom, the client which comes to Pandey is more likely to get better results in terms of sales. Hence this is justified. This is not because of any gender bias,” said Santani of Socio Spy Media.

As per Santani, apart from fashion and apparel and beauty brands, female influencers are also getting favoured by Unisex brands in the FMCG category because of scale and value. 

Akshae Golekar

According to Akshae Golekar, Co- Founder of Optiminastic Media, “Men earn more money from travel, fitness, and gaming, whereas women earn more from beauty, fashion, and lifestyle. Since the number of influencers has increased, there are more female influencers who are into fashion, makeup, and lifestyle. There are also female influencers who are into gaming, finance, and cryptocurrency, who are less common, so if they have a good audience, then clearly, they are sought after by brands. Obviously, brands would want to work with gamers, regardless of their gender, if they have a large following and reach. As the number of female influencers in gaming, finance, and cryptocurrency is lower than that of male influencers, there is a large gap between their compensation.” 

“Most influencers in our country are female. In our agency, we pay equal to or more to female influencers. Hence, the disparity across genders is present but we don't promote and, in most cases, female influencers are more well-compensated than male influencers by us,” he added. 

Shuchi Sethi

Shuchi Sethi, India Lead of AnyTag, stated that female influencers, regardless of the industry, are not only succeeding but also being paid equal to men. “The gaming industry has experienced phenomenal development in the past few years. Until recently, gaming was primarily regarded as a male-dominated field. Now, women are carving a niche for themselves in the online gaming space as gamers, streamers, game developers, and entrepreneurs.”

“Women account for approximately 18% of all gamers in India, and their numbers are growing faster than male gamers. Women roughly account for one-fifth of this population and are now paid at par with males. Besides gaming, female influencers are thriving in other sectors such as fashion, beauty, and travel. In these sectors, females outnumber males by a large margin and there is no salary disparity between men and women. Influencers now have fixed prices for different types of content they provide, since the payment cycle has become more standardised. Negotiations do happen, but they do not disadvantage or discriminate against female influencers. It is entirely dependent on the quality of the content and the engagement level on the influencer's page/profile,” she added.