The burst in construction spending over the past several years has been a boon to architectural firms, where as an industry payroll employment has grown by an average of 7,500 positions per year over the past six years. About 4,500 of that annual increase in staffing have been for architectural positions.
Demand for architects is reflected in the increased compensation that firms have been bestowing on hires and employees for recruitment and retention. In its latest Compensation Report, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) finds that average compensation across all architectural staff positions averaged in excess of $92,000 at the beginning of 2019, up more than 6% per year from early 2017 levels.
That increase, though, comes with a stinger: the last times architect salaries reached an increase of 6% per year—1999 and 2008—were either just prior to, or as the economy and the construction sector were entering, national economic downturns.
That being said, average architectural compensation has seen substantial growth beyond mere inflation over the past two decades. In 2019 dollars, average architecture compensation in 1990 was just over $70,000. The 12% increase over the past two years was twice the pace of growth in compensation for all workers in the U.S. economy, and 2.5 times the pace of all professional and related state, according to the Department of Labor’s Employment Cost Index.
Compensation gains for architectural staff have exceeded those for other workers.
The AIA Compensation Report is based on a national survey conducted by AIA and Readex Research earlier this year. Responses from 640 firms with 959 locations are broken down by 28 states, 28 metro areas, and 16 cities. The survey provides in-depth compensation information on 44 positions.
The survey finds wide ranges of compensation by metro and position. For example, the average base pay plus compensation for recent non-licensed graduates was $55,790 nationally. San Jose paid the highest ($65,900) and Pittsburgh the lowest ($45,800). However, the grads hired in San Jose were paying 38.5% of their compensation in rent, whereas in Indianapolis, rent consumed only 16.7% of their paychecks.
Architecture salary trends
Average architect salary increases during the last two years continued to be highest across senior- and executive-level staff. And salaries varied widely by company size. For example, the national average for the CEO/president position was $246,130. For firms with fewer than 10 employees, it was $170,436; for firms with 250 or more employees, $435,930.
The same pattern emerges for the Director of Design position: a $193,460 national average, $132,650 for the smallest firms, $235,200 for the largest. For a senior architectural staffer, the national average was $112,960, for smallest firms $82,170, and for the largest firms $128,660.
Architectural firms have been improving their employee benefits packages.
Many positions, especially more senior architectural staff, continued to see an increase in the share of their salaries that is non-guaranteed (e.g., overtime, commissions, bonuses, incentive pay, profit sharing, retirement benefits paid, and other cash compensation) versus guaranteed (i.e., base pay). Managing principals now have the largest share of their salary as non-guaranteed pay compared with the other architecture/design positions, with the largest percentage point increase from 2017 in the share of non-guaranteed pay from 28% in 2017 to 42% in 2019.
Related content: Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
In general, firms are improving their benefits packages. Ninety-five percent of firms offer medical coverage to their employees, and 91% offer defined contribution retirement savings plans. Seventy percent offer paid time off for exams and other professional development. But only 41% offer paid parental leave.
Many firms report that in 2018 they encouraged diversity in hiring and actively engaged in steps to enrich their firms’ culture and retain employees throughout different life stages. For example, 36% conducted a salary equity assessment by gender and/or race, and 80% indicated that they have specifically hired, promoted, and/or mentored employees with diverse backgrounds.
Related Stories
| May 29, 2014
Retail renovation trends: Omni-channel shopping, personalized experiences among top goals of new store designs
In pursuit of enhanced customer experiences, retailers are using Big Data, interactive technology, and omni-channel shopping to transform their bricks and mortar locations.
| May 28, 2014
Video Blog: How today’s construction firms are bridging the BIM gap
Turner Construction and Parsons Brinckerhoff talk about how BIM has revolutionized the way that they conduct projects, and how technology has allowed them to leverage collaboration in such a way that they can work with decentralized teams.
| May 28, 2014
KPF's dual towers in Turkey will incorporate motifs, symbols of Ottoman Empire
The two-building headquarters for Turkey’s largest and oldest financial institution, Ziraat Bank, is inspired by the country’s cultural heritage.
| May 28, 2014
B.R. Fries completes medical center focused on male health
Occupying the building’s entire second floor, the male-centric center is honeycombed with examination and consultation rooms, as well as areas for noninvasive testing.
| May 28, 2014
Moshe Safdie's twin residential towers in Singapore will be connected by 'sky pool' 38 stories in the air [slideshow]
Moshe Safdie's latest project, a pair of 38-story luxury residential towers in Singapore, will be linked by three "sky garden" bridges, including a rooftop-level bridge with a lap pool running the length between the two structures.
| May 27, 2014
Supergreen Venter lab displayed in new walk-through video
ZGF Architects' La Jolla building for genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter and his nonprofit research organization aims to be the first net-zero energy, carbon-neutral biological lab.
| May 27, 2014
America's oldest federal public housing development gets a facelift
First opened in 1940, South Boston's Old Colony housing project had become a symbol of poor housing conditions. Now the revamped neighborhood serves as a national model for sustainable, affordable multifamily design.
| May 27, 2014
One World Trade Center cuts rents due to sluggish activity
Sluggish economy and lackluster leasing force developer The Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to reduce asking rents by nearly 10% to $69/sf.
| May 27, 2014
Fire Rated Glass contributes to open lab environment at JSNN
Openness and transparency were high priorities in the design of the Joint School of Nanoscience & Nanoengineering within the Gateway University Research Park in Greensboro, N.C. Because the facility’s nanobioelectronics clean room houses potentially explosive materials, it needed to be able to contain flames, heat, and smoke in the event of a fire. SPONSORED CONTENT
| May 27, 2014
What are your services worth?
The price, cost, and value of design services are explored in a recent Design Intelligence article authored by Scott Simpson, a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council. Value, he explains, represents the difference between “price” and “cost.” SPONSORED CONTENT