Gender equality is a long-standing focus for the events industry, yet the latest data from Live Recruitment’s 2025 Sales Diversity Report reveals that significant pay gaps remain across event sales roles. What makes this particularly striking is that these gaps exist not only in male-dominated subsectors, but even in areas where women make up the majority in the workforce. As businesses compete to attract and retain top commercial talent, gender-based salary disparities are becoming a strategic risk impacting team morale, long-term retention, and employer brand.
How significant are the gender pay gaps across event sales roles?
Across all sales professionals in the events sector, male employees earn an average of £47,796, compared with £41,980 for female employees. This represents a difference of over £5,800.
Even more revealing: men also report desired salaries £5,000 higher than women on average, indicating a long-term expectation and confidence gap that employers must be aware of.
These gaps persist across every subsector, regardless of workforce composition.
Which subsectors show the biggest pay disparities?
Across every subsector in the events industry, the data reveals clear gender pay disparities. In tech suppliers, male sales professionals earn an average of £50,504 compared with £46,725 for females - a gap of nearly £4,000 in current salaries and over £7,000 when looking at desired salaries.
In venues, where women make up 73.1% of the workforce in the sales sector(on average women make up 56.9% of the event sales industry), men still earn around £4,200 more on average. Conference and exhibition organisers show a similar pattern, with a £4,200 current salary gap and a £3,400 gap in desired salaries. Event and production agencies also report a consistent difference, with men earning approximately £3,300 more in current salaries and £3,200 more in desired pay. Across the board, the pay gap remains significant.
These findings show that pay gaps are structural, not incidental and present across both male-majority and female-majority environments.
How does this impact talent attraction and retention?
Gender pay gaps have measurable effects on organisations. Research shows that greater transparency around pay is associated with lower job turnover intentions suggesting that employees may be more likely to stay when pay practices are clearer. Lower transparency (or pay secrecy) is associated with weaker perceptions of organisational support and fairness which in turn correlates with higher turnover intention.
Underpayment and pay inequities also risk undermining morale and weakening retention, especially in roles or teams where women are over or underrepresented. Meanwhile, as candidates become more informed and increasingly aware of pay data, equitable pay practices emerge as an important factor in attracting and holding onto talent.
What can employers do to close the gap?
The solution isn’t simply just raising salaries; it’s about improving structure and clarity across the board. Employers should look at the following to make a conscious change to close the gap:
Benchmark against sector-specific salary data
Review promotion pipelines and progression policies
Standardise salary bands for roles with the same responsibilities
Conduct annual pay audits
Ensure starting salaries are equitable across genders
Partner with specialists like Live Recruitment for unbiased salary insights and monitoring
With pay expectations rising across the board, closing the gap is no longer just good practice it’s a competitive advantage.
Addressing gender pay gaps effectively requires structural clarity and not just raising pay. Organisations should benchmark against sector specific salary data, standardise salary bands for roles with equivalent responsibilities, review promotion pipelines, and apply consistent progression policies.
Many businesses also have regular pay audits to catch and correct inequities early. These show fairness as a key driver of organisational commitment and retention. In addition, transparency alone may not fully determine retention - its impact appears to operate via mediators such as perceived support and fairness.
Conclusion
The 2025 Live Recruitment Event Sales Diversity Report shows that gender pay gaps persist across the events industry, regardless of sector or workforce composition. These inequalities restrict talent attraction, limit retention, and impact long-term commercial performance. By understanding the data and taking proactive steps to close the gap, employers can build more inclusive, motivated, and high-performing sales teams.
Live Recruitment partners with organisations across the events sector to ensure fair, competitive salary structures - helping businesses attract and retain the talent they need for the future.
Download the Live Recruitment Diversity Report (Sales Sector) here.