What each seam pays
Executive coaching sits about 1.8× above relationship coaching at the midpoint. The gap is not a measure of skill or of how hard the work is. It is almost entirely a measure of who signs the cheque.
- Executive coachingThe deep seam. Hardest to reach, richest to work.Hourly$200 to $500/hrEntryDeepestAnnual$96,000 to $98,000
- Business coachingCrowded, but the buyer has a budget.Hourly$150 to $400/hrEntryDeepAnnual$80,000 to $110,000
- Leadership coachingThe approach to the deep seam.Hourly$150 to $400/hrEntryDeepAnnual$80,000 to $100,000
- Health and wellnessBroad and shallow, and competing with software.Hourly$75 to $200/hrEntryShallowAnnual$52,000 to $77,000
- Financial coachingBounded above by regulation.Hourly$100 to $200/hrEntryModerateAnnual$50,000 to $75,000
- Career coachingWorked steadily, pays on urgency.Hourly$100 to $250/hrEntryModerateAnnual$49,000 to $72,000
- Life coachingThe surface seam: easy to reach, worked by everyone.Hourly$75 to $200/hrEntrySurfaceAnnual$47,000 to $72,000
- Relationship coachingDeeper than it looks, heavier to work.Hourly$100 to $200/hrEntryModerateAnnual$45,000 to $65,000
ICF 2025, PayScale, ZipRecruiter
The gap is a buyer, not a skill
Executive and business coaches earn roughly 1.8 to 2.2 times what life and relationship coaches earn, typically with fewer active clients. They are not working harder. They are selling to organisations, where a coaching fee is compared against a recruitment cost or an executive’s salary rather than against a household budget.
More than half of all coaching engagements worldwide are employer-funded. Moving toward that buyer moves your income more than any rate rise, and more than any additional certificate.
The corollary is uncomfortable but useful: if you are in a consumer niche and frustrated by your ceiling, the ceiling is structural. Raising your price inside the same market rarely fixes it. Changing who you sell to does.
The niches with no published number
Women's health, ADHD and neurodivergent carry no income row here, because no published survey separates them yet.
That is a real gap in the evidence and we would rather show it than fill it with a guess. It also tends to mean the niche is young, which usually means less competition and more room to set your own price.