Independent research, Summer 2025
The Speaker Industry Research
Dr Alison Edgar MBE commissioned an independent study of 250 UK professionals who book speakers. It found an average keynote fee of £5,000 to £6,000, and a gender pay gap on stage that is wider than the national one: men earn 15% more per booking, rising to 27% where speakers are booked on profile.
The headline numbers
- £6,029average fee per booking, male speakers
- £5,248average fee per booking, female speakers
- 15%more per booking for men, against a 13.1% national pay gap (ONS, 2024)
- 59 / 41split of recent speaker bookings, men to women
How the research was done
In Summer 2025, Alison Edgar Ltd commissioned independent research into the UK speaking industry: who takes the stage, what topics are in demand, and how fees are distributed. The survey reached 250 UK professionals who had booked a speaker in the previous 24 months, from event managers to HR and learning-and-development leaders and the senior decision-makers who contract keynote speakers, and analysed their real booking data.
The panel itself skewed slightly female, at 131 women to 119 men, and still booked a male speaker 59% of the time. Whatever produces the split, it is not male buyers preferring male speakers.
It follows the practice's earlier work on what organisations book speakers for, the 2024 Speaker Demand Study of 1,236 companies.
What is the gender pay gap for speakers?
Male speakers in the study earn an average of £6,029 per booking; female speakers £5,248. That £781 difference means men earn around 15% more per engagement, against a UK national gender pay gap of 13.1% (ONS, 2024). The speaking industry is not mirroring the national gap: it is exceeding it.
- Male speakers£6,029Highest recorded fee in the study: £9,000
- Female speakers£5,248£781 less per booking. Highest recorded fee: £6,500
Hover or tab to a bar for the fee ceilings. Source: 250 UK bookers, Summer 2025.
The imbalance is structural as well as average. Around one in six male bookings reached £7,000 or more, against none for women, and the highest male fee was £9,000 against a highest female fee of £6,500.
The floor runs the same way. The lowest fee paid to a man was £4,400; the lowest paid to a woman was £2,500. Men's fees ran from £4,400 to £9,000 and women's from £2,500 to £6,500, so men are absent from the bottom of the market as well as alone at the top. Men set the market's benchmarks; women are priced beneath them at both ends.
Which speaking topics pay the most?
Embracing change tops the market at £6,030 per booking on average, followed by personal growth and development (£5,859), leadership and autonomy (£5,755), AI and digital transformation (£5,717) and sales and customer service (£5,716). The lowest-paying topics in the study were sports success (£5,352) and financial success (£5,429).
- Embracing change£6,030Also where women come closest to fee parity
- Personal growth£5,859
- Leadership & autonomy£5,755
- AI & digital£5,717Carries a 20% gender gap despite being a growth category
- Sales & customer service£5,716Near fee parity: a 2 to 3% gap
- Financial success£5,429
- Sports success£5,352The lowest-paying topic, and the widest gender gap: 27%
Fees cluster tightly: the whole market sits within £700 of itself.
The study also found a divide in who leads what, though not the expected one. Change was the most male-dominated subject, with 81% of its bookings going to men, followed by sales and customer service at 68% and AI and digital transformation at 65%. Wellbeing was the only large topic to land on an even split, with leadership and financial success close behind. The one subject where women were booked more often than men was sports success, at 62%.
Across all of it, demand for authentic, relatable, mindset-focused content continues to rise, a signal of what clients increasingly value on stage.
Where the gap is widest
The gap is widest where a speaker is booked on profile rather than on a measurable outcome. It is not a question of budget: sports success carries the widest gap of all and is the lowest-paying topic in the study.
- Sports success27%Men average £6,175 per booking; women £4,846
- High performance25%The second-widest gap in the study
- AI & digital transformation20%A growing category, still unequal
- Wellbeing and leadership15–18%Even where women are strongly represented
- Change and sales topics2–3%The closest the industry gets to parity
Widest where the booking rests on the speaker's name. Topic-level figures rest on smaller sub-samples than the headline gap and are indicative.
The four takeaways
Men command higher fees in every niche. Whatever the topic, male speakers average more per booking. The difference is not about presence, since women are active across every category studied; it is about perceived market value.
Fees come closest to parity on change and sales. Both show gaps of only 2 to 3%, and both are topics where the result can be pointed at afterwards: where value is easy to evidence, fees converge. Women are not, however, being booked for them — change was the most male-dominated subject in the study — and even here women rarely reach the highest fee brackets.
Booking on profile widens the gap. Sports success (27%), high performance (25%) and AI and digital transformation (20%) carry the biggest gaps. What they share is not budget, since sports success is the lowest-paying topic in the study; it is that the speaker's name is the product. Where the fee follows recognition rather than a result the buyer can point at, women are priced below men.
The range is part of the gap. Men reached £9,000 and women £6,500; at the other end, men bottomed out at £4,400 and women at £2,500. Premium pricing keeps reinforcing the idea of men as the default choice for the biggest events, while the bottom of the market is women only.
Questions about the research
How much does a keynote speaker cost in the UK?
The average fee for a professional keynote speaker in the UK is £5,000 to £6,000 per engagement, according to Alison Edgar Ltd’s 2025 Speaker Industry Research, a survey of 250 UK professionals who had booked a speaker in the previous 24 months. Fees in the study ranged up to £9,000, varying by topic, audience and event.
Is there a gender pay gap among professional speakers?
Yes. The 2025 Speaker Industry Research found male speakers earn on average 15% more per booking than female speakers (£6,029 against £5,248), wider than the UK national gender pay gap of 13.1% (ONS, 2024). The gap is widest where the booking rests on the speaker’s profile rather than on a measurable outcome, reaching 27% for sports success.
Who conducted the research, and how?
The study was commissioned by Dr Alison Edgar MBE and conducted independently in Summer 2025. It surveyed 250 UK professionals who had booked a speaker in the previous 24 months, including event managers, HR and learning-and-development leaders, and senior decision-makers, and analysed their real booking data: fees, topics and speaker selection.
Which speaking topics pay the most?
In the 2025 study, the highest-paying topics were embracing change (£6,030 average), personal growth and development (£5,859), and leadership and autonomy (£5,755), followed by AI and digital transformation and sales and customer service (both around £5,700). The lowest-paying were sports success (£5,352) and financial success (£5,429).
Can the data be quoted or referenced?
Yes, with attribution to Alison Edgar Ltd’s 2025 Speaker Industry Research. Journalists and researchers wanting the underlying detail or a comment from Dr Alison Edgar MBE can contact the team.
Want a comment on the findings, or a speaker who closes gaps?
Journalists and researchers are welcome to the underlying detail. Event organisers can get a tailored quote in minutes.