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Article - How Much Are Professional SpeakersPaid?
(c) by Lilly Walters, Claremont, California

Today $10,000 for a one hour celebrity program is considered very low. Many names you are familiar with, known in the industry as the "name draw" speakers are paid $30,000 per talk on up, plus expenses. One of our past USA Presidents is reported to earn over the $100,000 mark for a single presentation. Non celebrity, "professional speakers" make a great deal less, but individual profits of over $800,000 a year are not uncommon.

Most beginning professional speakers do not command fees over a few hundred dollars per talk, especially in the first year or so of their career. Speakers will present many speeches for no-fee before they hear those wonderful words from someone in their audience, "Will you come and speak for our company? What is your fee?" When they do, the door is open to a very fulfilling and lucrative career that will change the lives of the listeners, and of the speaker.

In July of 1996, Walters Speaker Services took a survey, they asked USA speakers bureaus what they felt the average fees are for non-celebrity speakers. (These figures are updated every two years in Lilly Walters' Speaking Industry Report)

A few years ago the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and the National Speakers Association (NSA) teamed up to take a survey of the reasons why ASAE members engage professional speakers.
Both of these survey's were taken by different groups, and of different survey groups, so, comparing the two sets of results is certainly not totally scientific. However, they do give you an excellent idea of what the average fees have been, and are today.

(c) from Lilly Walters Speaking Industry Report