And what about income?
Generally, employees, founders, and owners of coworking spaces earn more money depending on the seniority of their position. Respondents working in larger spaces more often reported an above-averagely high income** compared to those working in smaller spaces. Men earn above the average salary significantly more often than women, despite working the same amount.
Women rate their income worse
Women and men also judge the income they earn through their coworking spaces differently. Almost one in two female founders rate their income poorly, whereas this stands at ‘only’ 30% among men.
Employees are more satisfied than owners of coworking spaces with their income
Employees generally rate their income more highly than owners of coworking spaces do. Usually, the latter are more likely to have risked their wealth and economic livelihood than their employees. Accordingly, they have higher hopes for their own income development. However, their salary valuation and income jump upwards when their coworking spaces begin to become profitable.
Income satisfaction increases among salaried executives in profitable coworking spaces - but...
Employees also benefit from coworking spaces that are making a profit, but only regarding income satisfaction. Bad ratings do not dominate among employees - unlike among owners - even in uneconomic situations. However, in profitable coworking spaces, the proportion of salaried executives with above-average earnings is equally as high in unprofitable coworking spaces. This difference is surprising, as they work considerably longer in profitable coworking spaces.
A coworking space is hard work!
In general, coworking space owners report working hours of an (arithmetic) average of 45 hours per week - regardless whether they are male or female. Salaried space managers follow with 42 hours, whilst other employees work an average of 43 hours. Generally, the working hours increase for everyone the larger the coworking space.
Hours change significantly depending on the profitability of a coworking space. When in the profit zone, owners slightly reduce their hours, whereas working hours for salaried space managers increase slightly compared to unprofitable coworking spaces.
Some salaried executives may use their current positions in coworking spaces as just a stopover. As the age of coworking spaces increases, the average age of employed management decreases – unlike among owners. How is this possible without plastic surgery and gene therapy? The only possible answer is younger managers take their place.
How happy are people working for coworking spaces with their job? Put simply: Very!
Almost 80% of owners and just over 70% of executives feel happy with their job. There aren’t any big gender-specific differences. Profitable annual financial reports positively affect job satisfaction among everyone. However, satisfaction decreases slightly in particularly large cities. This is especially surprising as the highest share of profitable coworking spaces is also found in these cities.
5.4 people work for a coworking space on average
Three people work full-time and 1.5 work part-time****. This includes the owners of coworking spaces, providing they are actually involved in the running of the space and not simply shareholders. 0.5 interns account mathematically for another position.
These numbers don’t include any very low or very high extreme values, which is why their totals may differ from the added subtotals. Including extreme values, almost eight people work for a coworking space, 4.5 full time and 2.5 part-time. They are also supported by one internship position.
In general, the number of workers increases significantly with the number of members, desks, and space of an individual coworking space, which is hardly surprising.
More members = fewer staff members per member
On the other hand, individual staff members take mathematically care of more members when the coworking space is bigger. Staff costs per member should thus sink significantly. Therefore, although there may be considerably more staff members in profitable coworking spaces, there are fewer staff members per member than in unprofitable coworking spaces.
Download the free report
You can view all general statistics graphically by clicking on the article image or in a higher resolution via this link for free. More results about the 'number of staff members' and the 'ratio of members per staff member' are available in the "Ultimate Coworking Space Data Report".
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The 2018 Global Coworking Survey is officially supported by the following organizations:
Main Supporters:
Nexudus Spaces - A management tool for coworking spaces
WUN Systems- A management tool for coworking spaces
Essensys - A management tool for coworking spaces
Distribution partners:
Coworker.com - A platform to find and book coworking spaces
Social Workplaces - An event organizer and consulting agency for coworking spaces
Official Supporters:
GCUC Austin, Coworking Croatia Zagreb,
Mutinerie Paris, Kaptár Budapest,
OfficeHub Sydney, ImpactHub Taipei,
NexCore St. Louis, Plexpod Kansas City,
Coworking Out Loud San Francisco,
Talent Garden Milan, KinSpaces NYC,
Blocktime Coworking São Paulo
Deskpass Chicago, Hive Vancouver,
CUASIA Ubud, Cowork Lisboa Lisbon,
Shhared Hamburg, Open Milano Milan,
Seats2Meet Amsterdam, CAAP Ubud,
El Moli Lab València, AreaWorks London,
FutureWard Taipei, Sundesk Valbonne,
GCUC Taiwan Taipei, Habu Bristol,
Senda15 Coworking Vitoria-Gasteiz,
German Coworking Federation Berlin,
Homestead Edmonton.
Here, you can read more about the 2018 Global Coworking Survey.
Footnotes:
* All coworking space (co)owners and (co)founders, as well as self-employer operators, are included In this group.
** We don’t ask for exact salary information. They are not a stable indicator due to fluctuating exchange rates and living costs, which can’t be recalculated within the survey. Instead, respondents were asked to classify their salary in five categories from very above average to very below average for the cost of living in their country.
*** Hours may also include breaks
**** Unless stated otherwise, we express average values in 5% trimmed mean for unrestricted scales (e.g. number of staff members). This means that the lowest and highest 5% of all values are not taken into account. The result is that we can filter the extreme outliers from the average. However, all average values (mean, 5% trimmed mean and median) are contained in the graphics for the results. It is important to note that many statistics presented in the graphics are also grouped, and present their share to reflect the whole reality.