U.S. leaders’ earnings gender gap narrowed but still there - DDP report

The average compensation of the artistic directors of the 50 largest U.S. ballet and classically-based dance companies earned an average $241,252 in fiscal year 2023, while gender gaps narrowed, The Dance Data Project® (DDP)’s report showed.

DDD, a Northfield, IL,-based research and advocacy group specialising in the dance industry, published the Artistic and Executive Compnsation Report 2024 on 11th December 2024.

The average compensation of the artistic directors of the 50 largest companies were up from $218,560 from fiscal year 2022.

The average compensation of the excutive directors of the top 50 companies was $216,123 in fiscal year 2023.

Gender gaps in earnings narrowed significantly in fiscal year 2023 but female leaders’ earnings still had to catch up with their male counterparts’, DDD said.

“In FY 2022, female artistic directors earned 26 cents less per dollar than their male counterparts. Available data for FY 2023 indicates that in FY 2023, female artistic directors within the Largest 50 earned two cents less per dollar than their male counterparts, and female executive directors were paid four cents less per dollar than their male counterparts,” DDD said in the research.

When it comes to the top 10 ballet and classically-based dance companies, the average compensation was $558,175 in fiscal 2023. However, DDD also pointed out that it found one female artistic director among them earning more than a million dollars and nine male artistic directors earning just under $500,000 by average.

You can download the research here. There are many interesting statistics and trends. The research notes that some fiscal reports were not yet available, that artistic directors also served executive directors for some companies, and that some companies do not disclose executive directors’ earnings figures.