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Black influencers make significantly less money than their white counterparts, a new study says

influencer pay gap
Black influencers are earning significantly less than their white counterparts, according to a new study. Leo Patrizi/Getty Images

  • A study from communications company MSL looked into the "influencer pay gap."
  • The gap between Black and white content creators was found to be 35%.
  • 59% of Black influencers also reported that posting about race negatively impacted them financially.
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Black influencers are not earning as much money as their white counterparts, according to a report published Monday by the communications company MSL and educational organization The Influencer League.

Entitled "Time to Face the Influencer Pay Gap," the study found that the pay gap between white influencers, and those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color, was 29%. Between white and Black influencers, that gap widened to 35%, MSL reported.

The study included the perspectives of 400 content creators in the US. Participants were asked questions about how many followers they had, their annual income, and how much they were offered for brand deals.

"The gap this study uncovered in influencer marketing vastly overshadows the gaps in any other industry," D'Anthony Jackson, a digital and influencer strategist at MSL, said in a statement. The education industry has an 8% gap; the business and financial sector has a 16% gap; in construction, it's 19%; and in media, sports, and entertainment, it's 16%, according to the US Department of Labor's 2020 Current Population Survey.

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The study also found that 77% of Black content creators were considered nano- and micro-influencers who had fewer than 50,000 followers. The average compensation from brands in this tier was $27,000 per year. In comparison, macro-influencers — 43% of white respondents and 23% of Black respondents — averaged over $100,000 per year.

49% of the Black influencers in the study said they felt their race played a part in being low-balled and 59% of Black influencers also reported that posting about race negatively impacted them financially, according to the report. Only 14% of white influencers said they felt this impact, the report said. 

When asked what one action could help eliminate the influencer pay gap between white creators and people of color, 92% of respondents reported it would be industry-wide pay transparency, according to the report. 

Over the last two years, Black creators have reported experiencing racist jokes, microaggressions, and tokenism from others in the industry. In August, Insider's Taiyler Simone Mitchell reported that TikTok creators felt the platform's algorithm fostered a "consistent undertone of anti-Blackness" by "censoring" their content.

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There has also been an increased awareness of white creators taking content from people of color. In February 2020, Taylor Lorenz reported in The New York Times that the mega-popular "Renegade" dance on TikTok had been created by Jalaiah Harmon, a Black teenager from Atlanta, but everyone on the app seemed to attribute it to white TikTokers like Charli D'Amelio.

Creators are fighting back. In July 2020, Adesuwa Ajayi created the Instagram account @influencerpaygap, which grew to over 60,000 followers. She told Insider at the time she wanted to set the page up to showcase the inequality in the influencer space. The transparency quickly made the account a must-follow for people of color in the influencer industry and Ajayi said many people began sending her information about their brand deals to share anonymously. 

"Hopefully we get to a point where brands can be held accountable," she said.

Influencers Voices of Color Digital Culture
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