Here’s how Instagram is no stranger to the gender pay gap

It turns out women dominate the top 50 spots on the list of Instagram workout gurus, yet men are earning more.

A UK sports nutrition company called Forza Supplements calculated the earnings of the top ‘fitstagrammers’ based on how much each would charge for social media posts and deals.

A post shared by Joe Wicks #Leanin15 (@thebodycoach) on Oct 4, 2017 at 2:18pm PDT

Although 42 of the top ‘fitstagrammers’ are women, the highest earner is a male – none other than 31-year-old Joe Wicks or The Body Coach as he is known. Although he ranks at number 21 when it comes to Instagram followers, he’s still earning three times more than the top earning female. Forza managing director, Lee Smith said; “Clearly female fitstagrammers are far more popular on social media and 42 of the top 50 are women, and none of the top 10 is a man. “Yet there’s a clear gender pay gap amongst the very highest earners because Joe Wicks is making three times as much as the highest ranked female on the list, even though she is number one and he is at 21.” Forza suggests that Wicks, with 1.9 million followers, earns around £33,000 per day.

A post shared by Sommer Ray (@sommerray) on Sep 30, 2017 at 4:16pm PDT

The top earning female is 21-year-old Sommer Ray from Colorado, USA. With 16.9 million followers and usually receiving up to 500,000 likes on posts relating to beauty, food, energy drinks and hotels - she can earn around £20,000 per post. They also suggest sponsorship could help earn her an added £4 million a year, a third of what Joe Wicks would earn. Thirty-one-year-old fitness instructor Michelle Lewin took second place, taking home an estimated £3.5 million per year.

A post shared by Michelle Lewin (@michelle_lewin) on Sep 9, 2017 at 6:57am PDT

While in third place is LA based Jen Selter earning £3.2 million per year with 11.5 million followers.

A post shared by Jen Selter (@jenselter) on Sep 22, 2017 at 12:54pm PDT