I am kinda an open book and a little gutsy so here goes nothing. How much do you make? WARNING, this could be very painful yet very educational.
I have a professional Barch from 2001, so... 6 years experience, am currently in a large US city. I manage projects, small and large, under the supervision of the principal.
I make 48,500 salaried. ( that means 'free' overtime, between 2 and 5 hours EVERY week, sometimes up to 12-20 hours (free) overtime).
midwest/west. it is forbidden b/c it is the topic you aren't supposed to bring up, not to mention outright tell people. I was hoping others would follow my lead. Or would that create uneccessary animosity?
what happened to the new salary poll that was discussed a while ago? i'm guessing that maybe it will be part of the next big update... i think that we'd all be better off if salary wasn't such a taboo subject... so i'll share too...
a brief history of my salary...
straight out of undergrad with no experience: $28K
after grad school and back with the same firm: about $35K (can't remember the exact figure)
about 2 years later when i left the firm: about $45K
now here's where things get weird (i.e. i make way too much for what i do, but i'm not gonna complain)... i left my old firm to go to work for the city government as a "senior capital projects coordinator" in the capital improvements department... it is a project management/owner's rep type of position...
started at $58K about two years ago...
my current salary is just under $70K...
my current stats:
Bachelor of Design in 2000
M.Arch in 2003
almost finished with the ARE
tampa/st. petersburg
manage projects of all sizes (from playground to large recreation centers and affordable housing complexes) from pre-planning through construction and post-occupancy review
i work for a firm of about 35 architects in the middle western region...
graduated with my B.Arch in 2006, started full time work in June of 06, so ive been working for a year.
Was started at $35,000. got a 5% (putting me at my current salary, $36,750) Christmas raise along with the rest of the firm but as i mentioned in the other salary thread, i was also 'promoted' at christmas. (Id like to think it was due to the massive amount of effort and time i put in with 2 other people at my office to win a competition for us)
Either way, i didnt get a raise when i was 'promoted' and my year is coming up. I will be asking for a raise and hope to at the very least, break the 40k barrier.
Started here about a year ago doing CAD support. I was 3 years in to a 4 year B.S.Arch. Pay was $12.75 hourly, no overtime. At my 6 mo. review, I got a 5% raise, putting me at $13.39 hourly.
I was recently promoted to an intern position, which will start Monday. If they don't offer me a salary more on track with entry leven interns in the area (around $32,000) I will leave. I have a few offers in the bag. I've been with the company for a year already, and taking into concideration it's a salried position, so I won't be getting paid for overtime, I'm going to aim for a figure closer to $35,000, so I may ask for $37,000 and try not to get a laugh.
Luckily, my fiance is a merchandising manager at an art gallery, and can support us for a while if they promptly escort me to the door.
I'm sorry, but "free" overtime sounds like the biggest goddamn travesty I have ever heard. Lincoln freed the slaves over 140 years ago ppl. If i have to put in "free" overtime to be an architect working for someone else, fuck it, I'm out. Peace bitches, enjoy your servitude.
Whenever cases have gone to litigation, the courts have consistently found that, if you're not yet a registered architect, then by law, you're not considered exempt from overtime laws. Good luck trying to enforce that, though.
started with BArch from Penn State (1997) at a small nyc office with 3 years of experience in small local firm
$1000/month post tax
then onto 40 person nyc office - 26K
after working endless 7 day weeks, holidays and spending at least 10 different nights sleeping for an hour on a chair in the office over the course of one year...bonus offered: $600
then onto 120 person nyc office - 36K
after MArch from SCI-Arc (2001) back to 120 person nyc office - 48K
over the course of 4 years salary raised to 58K
salary at next job - small upstart R&D company - 65K
i don't know what career you're in, apurimac, but this is a profession. meaning that, once you've become a professional you do what it takes to get the job done. if you're salaried, it's not exactly overtime that you're working - you're paid a lump sum for the year and you're expected, as a professional, to get the job done. kooky system, but that's what we've got.
i've never thought that interns should be salaried, personally. they shouldn't be expected to be taking responsibility for their own time. registered architects and/or project management should do this and interns should make pay per hour, overtime included.
How can they not pay you for your time though? maybe this should go in the WTF thread... I'm sorry it just seems wrong to have someone work 6 extra hours a week and NOT pay them for they're time.
well i get the salary thing, i just was thinking about working by hour, then clocking out and after i do the principal says "yeah, umm, i'd like it if you could stay another four hours, yeeahhh we're really under the gun here and that would be nice if you can stay."
Apurimac, in this profession that concept is called a profit margin. sadly this is why we as a profession should do business plans before starting an office....no one thinks about the profitability of the effort they're about to undertake until they're behind the eightball on something.
maybe it all just boils down to the fact that i don't feel architects are compensated what i feel we are actually "worth", from the principal level to the intern level.
Perhaps that's part of the reason designers in general aren't valued (I mean in terms of $$$)..... it's just assumed that we'll all stay late and come in on weekends "to get the job done."
Unless you're a principal, that sounds a tad ridiculous to me. I'm not talking about staying an hour late once or twice a week for no pay, I'm talking about the fact that even if you work 8 unpaid hours a week, that amounts to about 400 hours at the end of the year. You'd be missing out on SERIOUS money. And THAT is what is ridiculous and should not be asked of anybody who's business isn't on the line if the project doesn't get done.
Other professionals get paid for the work they do and aren't ever expected to put in unpaid overtime. Maybe it's the masochist in all of us that just lets this go.
i keep wondering to myself, "should i get the hell out of dodge, or stay and try and fix things?" But how can we fix things? Education? Restoring the image of the "master builder"? Even engineers, better compensated than we are, aren't paid what they're worth. I think the only profession that get's paid what they're worth are doctors.
from a firm standpoint, if the firm does work on an hourly basis they know they can break even, covering all costs, etc. but they can't make a really good profit if their efficiency is high. high efficiency at hourly pay equals out to the same $$$ as low efficiency at hourly pay. cashflow is cool, but you're just working and never getting ahead.
working for a percentage, on the other hand, while more of a risk, is a way of potentially making a good profit. you may lose if your firm is run inefficiently but it you've got good performers you stand to make more money. thus the standard for percentage-based fees. we all want to get ahead.
employees working overtime - paid or not - isn't good for the firm because it makes it hard to really know how much time something should take in normal hours, it means things are not being managed as well as they might be, and it wears on employees.
This is my 3rd year out of school. I graduated in May 2005 with a pre-professional architecture degree. My first job, working for a developer in the Southeast, paid $35,000 (salary). Two weeks into this job I asked for a raise up to $40,000, based on a number of factors, and was granted said raise. This job included no overtime, and frankly, the work week was often 35 or so hours, never more than 40. I stayed there for 6 months (this was the initial arrangement).
My second job, at a corporate architecture firm, also in the Southeast, paid $37,500 (hourly). Young staff were compensated for every hour over 40. For this reason, overtime was granted carefully, and not so often (unless you really wanted it). At my 1 year review my wage was increased to the equivilant of $42,000. At this point I had 1.5 years of post-school experience.
I recently began my 3rd job, in the Northeast (read: higher cost of living). My salary is $50,000 (not hourly). I work at a very small firm that does primarily high-end retail and residential (single family and multi-family).
Strawbeary, you may get a more honest notion of your local value if you shop yourself around. I'm sure there are plenty of places that would greatly appreciate your experience and capability, therefore giving you a better sense of what you should expect from your current employer (I understand, friend, that you have many reasons to stay at your current job, so I'm only suggesting this tactic as a means to understand what compensation you may be due)...
Hi, I've never posted here before, but I think this is important information to share...forbidden as it may be. Our profession poses some serious issues around compensation, quality of life, dedication to a firm vs. your own professional growth. If we don't educate ourselves about the other situations that are out there, then we stand no chance of carving out a practice that works for us.
I've been working at small firms since receiving my 4-year (pre-professional) degree in '99. I decided against going for an M.Arch because the cost was too much to take on when I still had undergrad loans to pay off. It ended up being the right choice for me, since I'm in California and I was able to get licensed without the M.Arch.
'99 out of school, san francisco: $12/hr full-time, no overtime
increased to $15/hr over the next couple of years.
'01 nyc : $37,000 salary
'02-04 san francisco: $38,000 salary (stagnant job)
'05 $46,000
'06: $52,000
'07: $56,000 ...not a lot for 8 years, but my experience has been varied and I've avoided the corporate world. I've only worked for one firm that expected weekend work and overtime, but they did pay time and a half for it.
Futureboy - you graduated BARCH at PSU one year ahead of me...
I'll play too...
Graduated with my BARCH in '98 - started at $24K year.
Fast forward to today - 9 years experience, recently licensed, LEED AP, working in a medium to large city on the left coast - $64K/year + a bonus usually around 10% of my gross...
B.Arch 2005, tons of student intern experience including construction...
started at $42,000/year. No overtime, but decent benefits. 10% increase after one year. This is big-city money though, so not too easily compared to small-midwestern-town money, as it doesn't go nearly as far.
My first full-time job, with a BArch, in 1994, in Portland, OR, was $18,000 (interestingly, my father - a metallurgical engineer - also started straight out of school at $18K in 1963!!. That depressed me.
After grad school, I started at $23,000 in a medium-sized firm in Philadelphia. I stayed there for 10 years and knew that I wasn't making quit as much as I could at other firms, but I loved the place and the work, which is a valid reason to make less, as long as the anguish of being broke doesn't outweigh the joy of your coworkers and work.
Over the course of ten years there I got annual raises, became registered, became an associate, and by the time I left made $60,000 (including bonuses). Had fantastic benefits there, too, which you could argue added another $15,000 to my salary.
Now I'm self-employed and manage to get around $50,000 or so, when you factor in minimal benefits and weigh them against the fact that I can take off for three weeks or an afternoon whenever I want and then weigh THAT against the fact that I work almost every night until midnight AND then weigh THAT against the fact that I don't have a boss and then....
Self-employment is hard to quantify. But I'm making the mortgage and can almost afford groceries every week!
Actually, rationalist, I know it's different for everyone but surprisingly my cost of living in Philly was about 70% of what it is in Indianapolis. The midwest for me is expensive, mostly due to groceries and gas.
1998: Worked for a window manufacturer, storm doors and screen line, making windows with the immigrants, $7.00 an hour.
1999 and 2000, worked for a structural engineer/contractor during the summers. $13/hr.
Graduated May 2001, started full time in Dec 2001: 28,000 a year hourly plus overtime.
Not sure this is exactly right, but it goes something like this:
2003: 30,000
2004: 33,000
2005: 33,000 I left right before I would have gotten a raise
Got hired at new job for 46,500 salaried, it was what I asked for and there was no negotiations, I had another offer for $42,000. Got a raise in 2006 to 48,500 to where I am today. I will get a $5,000 raise when I finish the AREs putting me at $53,500 in the (hopefully) near future.
i made more per hour working for a model builder than i did working in a firm...... but then i made more in the construction field than i did in the model shop and arch firm...
next goal is to sell out and become a rapper with some bling bling
I'm making up to 2x more than some of the employees at a firm, hired as an 'outside consultant'. AND the majority of my time has been spent doing physical models.
1. From the title, I thought this thread was going to be about porn.
2. I really take issue with architects when it comes to salaries because there are so many who are self-deprecating, that they are willing to work basically for free, making it difficult for people like me to score a good salary. Because, after all, why would an amployer hire someone with a sense of self-worth who wants decent pay, when they could hire someone who can be treated like a slave and will keep coming back for more.
3. My education/employment/salary history:
- B.Arch in 2005, working on M.Arch to be completed Fall 2007
- first job after graduation/no previous architecture exp: $31,200/yr (gross), no benefits, average of 50 hours per week in very small NYC firm doing mostly residential work
- second job in architecture/6 months exp: $45,000/year (gross), full benefits, profit-sharing, 401k in a large (well-known) corporate firm in the NYC area... I work with very nice (and competent) people and I get to work on a variety of projects (mostly large scale). I am treated fairly by my employer. I am never asked to get someone's coffee or wash someone's car. I think the work we do is interesting and challenging and provides plently of learning opportunities. And yes, I actually like my job!
By the way, good thread Strawbeary. The salary poll just doesn't do it for me. There are many small peices of imformation missing from the salary poll that make a huge difference.
architechnophilia, you're in Jamaica, right? My father works in Bermuda occasionally, and that's piqued my interest in someday working on an island out in the ocean, whether it be Jamaica, BVI, etc.
I just haven't been able to find any info on the architecture industry (in a very cursory search). Any leads on where to find such info (growth, licensing, stats, reports, etc) ?
Appleseed, there's a reason you make more! We were talking about this in another thread a bit ago, but those self employment taxes will take your last cent and not blink an eye.
Previous pay from internships:
tract housing, only ones who would take a second year student with no experience: $10/hr, part-time employee
custom housing, two-person firm: $8/hr, CONTRACT EMPLOYEE. This went up to $10/hr when he saw that I was good, but I was still getting screwed. This is where I learned that there's no poverty line for the self-employed.
much nicer custom housing and some commercial: $13/hr, still a contract employee.
large construction company, basically I was an RFI-machine: $14/hr, small bonus, and a $4k scholarship.
As long as your employer is willing to shell out the extra in your hourly pay that they aren't using on health insurance and vacation and such, it's not a problem at all. But when they think they can pay you a bottom of the barrell wage and have you as a contract employee, that's when it all goes to hell.
My educational background: Long story, but I began a pre-professional BA degree in 1995, but I'm looking at finishing up a general liberal arts BA with a concentration in architecture this fall. Hoping to start my M.Arch. within the next year or so.
First job in the architecture business: Student intern at a large corporate firm for about $9 an hour + overtime. No benefits for most of that time, but that eventually changed.
Between 2000-2003, I was living in Boston, Chicago, and then Philadelphia, doing CAD monkey / job captain stuff. Salary was between $35,000 - $37,500 with benefits. Depending on the company, some places gave me overtime and benefits, other places gave me neither. The last place in Philly had pretty generous benefits plus a nice comp time / flex-time system.
2004: Moved to NYC, got a job doing pretty much the same stuff, salary bumped to $48,000 mainly because of the cost of living increase. Pretty standard benefits package, no overtime. I had been told that the company had very generous holiday bonuses, but I didn't stay there long enough to find out.
2005 - Present: Working back in Chicago, serving as a project architect / job captain / CAD monkey on a lot of corporate interiors projects. Started at $45,000, now making $48,000. Standard benefits, no overtime, no bonus.
the forbidden thread
I am kinda an open book and a little gutsy so here goes nothing. How much do you make? WARNING, this could be very painful yet very educational.
I have a professional Barch from 2001, so... 6 years experience, am currently in a large US city. I manage projects, small and large, under the supervision of the principal.
I make 48,500 salaried. ( that means 'free' overtime, between 2 and 5 hours EVERY week, sometimes up to 12-20 hours (free) overtime).
Do I need a raise? A new career?
why is this thread forbidden? i was intrigued by the title.
not enough
aren't you in the midwest like me, strawbeary? big city or no, in the midwest (not counting chicago), 6yrs experience/48.5k really isn't bad.
i'd say you are overpaid!
midwest/west. it is forbidden b/c it is the topic you aren't supposed to bring up, not to mention outright tell people. I was hoping others would follow my lead. Or would that create uneccessary animosity?
SALARY POLL:
http://www.archinect.com/salary_questionnaire/index.php
lots of responses there, fyi.
i'll play!
also midwest, medium-to-large city. m.arch, architect, 15yrs experience. $65,000/yr.
straw, how is this different from the salary poll?
I can't complain, and yet I still do.
ah, crosspost.
what happened to the new salary poll that was discussed a while ago? i'm guessing that maybe it will be part of the next big update... i think that we'd all be better off if salary wasn't such a taboo subject... so i'll share too...
a brief history of my salary...
straight out of undergrad with no experience: $28K
after grad school and back with the same firm: about $35K (can't remember the exact figure)
about 2 years later when i left the firm: about $45K
now here's where things get weird (i.e. i make way too much for what i do, but i'm not gonna complain)... i left my old firm to go to work for the city government as a "senior capital projects coordinator" in the capital improvements department... it is a project management/owner's rep type of position...
started at $58K about two years ago...
my current salary is just under $70K...
my current stats:
Bachelor of Design in 2000
M.Arch in 2003
almost finished with the ARE
tampa/st. petersburg
manage projects of all sizes (from playground to large recreation centers and affordable housing complexes) from pre-planning through construction and post-occupancy review
it is different than the salary poll because it is current, and here we all kinda know each other.
strawberry-good topic... ill fess up
i work for a firm of about 35 architects in the middle western region...
graduated with my B.Arch in 2006, started full time work in June of 06, so ive been working for a year.
Was started at $35,000. got a 5% (putting me at my current salary, $36,750) Christmas raise along with the rest of the firm but as i mentioned in the other salary thread, i was also 'promoted' at christmas. (Id like to think it was due to the massive amount of effort and time i put in with 2 other people at my office to win a competition for us)
Either way, i didnt get a raise when i was 'promoted' and my year is coming up. I will be asking for a raise and hope to at the very least, break the 40k barrier.
I'll bite...
Started here about a year ago doing CAD support. I was 3 years in to a 4 year B.S.Arch. Pay was $12.75 hourly, no overtime. At my 6 mo. review, I got a 5% raise, putting me at $13.39 hourly.
I was recently promoted to an intern position, which will start Monday. If they don't offer me a salary more on track with entry leven interns in the area (around $32,000) I will leave. I have a few offers in the bag. I've been with the company for a year already, and taking into concideration it's a salried position, so I won't be getting paid for overtime, I'm going to aim for a figure closer to $35,000, so I may ask for $37,000 and try not to get a laugh.
Luckily, my fiance is a merchandising manager at an art gallery, and can support us for a while if they promptly escort me to the door.
I'm sorry, but "free" overtime sounds like the biggest goddamn travesty I have ever heard. Lincoln freed the slaves over 140 years ago ppl. If i have to put in "free" overtime to be an architect working for someone else, fuck it, I'm out. Peace bitches, enjoy your servitude.
Whenever cases have gone to litigation, the courts have consistently found that, if you're not yet a registered architect, then by law, you're not considered exempt from overtime laws. Good luck trying to enforce that, though.
slavery and a salary with some overtime ain't the best analogy.
i like the pay history aspect of this...
here i go:
started with BArch from Penn State (1997) at a small nyc office with 3 years of experience in small local firm
$1000/month post tax
then onto 40 person nyc office - 26K
after working endless 7 day weeks, holidays and spending at least 10 different nights sleeping for an hour on a chair in the office over the course of one year...bonus offered: $600
then onto 120 person nyc office - 36K
after MArch from SCI-Arc (2001) back to 120 person nyc office - 48K
over the course of 4 years salary raised to 58K
salary at next job - small upstart R&D company - 65K
i don't know what career you're in, apurimac, but this is a profession. meaning that, once you've become a professional you do what it takes to get the job done. if you're salaried, it's not exactly overtime that you're working - you're paid a lump sum for the year and you're expected, as a professional, to get the job done. kooky system, but that's what we've got.
i've never thought that interns should be salaried, personally. they shouldn't be expected to be taking responsibility for their own time. registered architects and/or project management should do this and interns should make pay per hour, overtime included.
How can they not pay you for your time though? maybe this should go in the WTF thread... I'm sorry it just seems wrong to have someone work 6 extra hours a week and NOT pay them for they're time.
well i get the salary thing, i just was thinking about working by hour, then clocking out and after i do the principal says "yeah, umm, i'd like it if you could stay another four hours, yeeahhh we're really under the gun here and that would be nice if you can stay."
are architects/firms paid by their time? sometimes. often we're paid lump sum or by a percentage of the job cost.
Apurimac, in this profession that concept is called a profit margin. sadly this is why we as a profession should do business plans before starting an office....no one thinks about the profitability of the effort they're about to undertake until they're behind the eightball on something.
Valid points all, i still think its a bit nasty though.
maybe it all just boils down to the fact that i don't feel architects are compensated what i feel we are actually "worth", from the principal level to the intern level.
i hope everyone who is dropping a hundred grand on their architecture education takes time to read this thread.
Perhaps that's part of the reason designers in general aren't valued (I mean in terms of $$$)..... it's just assumed that we'll all stay late and come in on weekends "to get the job done."
Unless you're a principal, that sounds a tad ridiculous to me. I'm not talking about staying an hour late once or twice a week for no pay, I'm talking about the fact that even if you work 8 unpaid hours a week, that amounts to about 400 hours at the end of the year. You'd be missing out on SERIOUS money. And THAT is what is ridiculous and should not be asked of anybody who's business isn't on the line if the project doesn't get done.
Other professionals get paid for the work they do and aren't ever expected to put in unpaid overtime. Maybe it's the masochist in all of us that just lets this go.
i keep wondering to myself, "should i get the hell out of dodge, or stay and try and fix things?" But how can we fix things? Education? Restoring the image of the "master builder"? Even engineers, better compensated than we are, aren't paid what they're worth. I think the only profession that get's paid what they're worth are doctors.
and then there are the butt load of professions paid more than they're worth...like, say, lawyers...
from a firm standpoint, if the firm does work on an hourly basis they know they can break even, covering all costs, etc. but they can't make a really good profit if their efficiency is high. high efficiency at hourly pay equals out to the same $$$ as low efficiency at hourly pay. cashflow is cool, but you're just working and never getting ahead.
working for a percentage, on the other hand, while more of a risk, is a way of potentially making a good profit. you may lose if your firm is run inefficiently but it you've got good performers you stand to make more money. thus the standard for percentage-based fees. we all want to get ahead.
employees working overtime - paid or not - isn't good for the firm because it makes it hard to really know how much time something should take in normal hours, it means things are not being managed as well as they might be, and it wears on employees.
try managing yourself now thats a bitch.
This is my 3rd year out of school. I graduated in May 2005 with a pre-professional architecture degree. My first job, working for a developer in the Southeast, paid $35,000 (salary). Two weeks into this job I asked for a raise up to $40,000, based on a number of factors, and was granted said raise. This job included no overtime, and frankly, the work week was often 35 or so hours, never more than 40. I stayed there for 6 months (this was the initial arrangement).
My second job, at a corporate architecture firm, also in the Southeast, paid $37,500 (hourly). Young staff were compensated for every hour over 40. For this reason, overtime was granted carefully, and not so often (unless you really wanted it). At my 1 year review my wage was increased to the equivilant of $42,000. At this point I had 1.5 years of post-school experience.
I recently began my 3rd job, in the Northeast (read: higher cost of living). My salary is $50,000 (not hourly). I work at a very small firm that does primarily high-end retail and residential (single family and multi-family).
Strawbeary, you may get a more honest notion of your local value if you shop yourself around. I'm sure there are plenty of places that would greatly appreciate your experience and capability, therefore giving you a better sense of what you should expect from your current employer (I understand, friend, that you have many reasons to stay at your current job, so I'm only suggesting this tactic as a means to understand what compensation you may be due)...
Hi, I've never posted here before, but I think this is important information to share...forbidden as it may be. Our profession poses some serious issues around compensation, quality of life, dedication to a firm vs. your own professional growth. If we don't educate ourselves about the other situations that are out there, then we stand no chance of carving out a practice that works for us.
I've been working at small firms since receiving my 4-year (pre-professional) degree in '99. I decided against going for an M.Arch because the cost was too much to take on when I still had undergrad loans to pay off. It ended up being the right choice for me, since I'm in California and I was able to get licensed without the M.Arch.
'99 out of school, san francisco: $12/hr full-time, no overtime
increased to $15/hr over the next couple of years.
'01 nyc : $37,000 salary
'02-04 san francisco: $38,000 salary (stagnant job)
'05 $46,000
'06: $52,000
'07: $56,000 ...not a lot for 8 years, but my experience has been varied and I've avoided the corporate world. I've only worked for one firm that expected weekend work and overtime, but they did pay time and a half for it.
Futureboy - you graduated BARCH at PSU one year ahead of me...
I'll play too...
Graduated with my BARCH in '98 - started at $24K year.
Fast forward to today - 9 years experience, recently licensed, LEED AP, working in a medium to large city on the left coast - $64K/year + a bonus usually around 10% of my gross...
B.Arch 2005, tons of student intern experience including construction...
started at $42,000/year. No overtime, but decent benefits. 10% increase after one year. This is big-city money though, so not too easily compared to small-midwestern-town money, as it doesn't go nearly as far.
My first full-time job, with a BArch, in 1994, in Portland, OR, was $18,000 (interestingly, my father - a metallurgical engineer - also started straight out of school at $18K in 1963!!. That depressed me.
After grad school, I started at $23,000 in a medium-sized firm in Philadelphia. I stayed there for 10 years and knew that I wasn't making quit as much as I could at other firms, but I loved the place and the work, which is a valid reason to make less, as long as the anguish of being broke doesn't outweigh the joy of your coworkers and work.
Over the course of ten years there I got annual raises, became registered, became an associate, and by the time I left made $60,000 (including bonuses). Had fantastic benefits there, too, which you could argue added another $15,000 to my salary.
Now I'm self-employed and manage to get around $50,000 or so, when you factor in minimal benefits and weigh them against the fact that I can take off for three weeks or an afternoon whenever I want and then weigh THAT against the fact that I work almost every night until midnight AND then weigh THAT against the fact that I don't have a boss and then....
Self-employment is hard to quantify. But I'm making the mortgage and can almost afford groceries every week!
Actually, rationalist, I know it's different for everyone but surprisingly my cost of living in Philly was about 70% of what it is in Indianapolis. The midwest for me is expensive, mostly due to groceries and gas.
lb sell the hummer and cut back on the veuve cliquot and filet mignon!
life's been good to me so far
I'll add my history.
1998: Worked for a window manufacturer, storm doors and screen line, making windows with the immigrants, $7.00 an hour.
1999 and 2000, worked for a structural engineer/contractor during the summers. $13/hr.
Graduated May 2001, started full time in Dec 2001: 28,000 a year hourly plus overtime.
Not sure this is exactly right, but it goes something like this:
2003: 30,000
2004: 33,000
2005: 33,000 I left right before I would have gotten a raise
Got hired at new job for 46,500 salaried, it was what I asked for and there was no negotiations, I had another offer for $42,000. Got a raise in 2006 to 48,500 to where I am today. I will get a $5,000 raise when I finish the AREs putting me at $53,500 in the (hopefully) near future.
This guy will be handling medical insurance and HMO stuff for my firm:
Hilarious, Apurimac!!!!
dont knock on dr. K
to put in my 2 cents...
i made more per hour working for a model builder than i did working in a firm...... but then i made more in the construction field than i did in the model shop and arch firm...
next goal is to sell out and become a rapper with some bling bling
Bling is dead. Good thread tho-
I'm making up to 2x more than some of the employees at a firm, hired as an 'outside consultant'. AND the majority of my time has been spent doing physical models.
I'd like to say a few things:
1. From the title, I thought this thread was going to be about porn.
2. I really take issue with architects when it comes to salaries because there are so many who are self-deprecating, that they are willing to work basically for free, making it difficult for people like me to score a good salary. Because, after all, why would an amployer hire someone with a sense of self-worth who wants decent pay, when they could hire someone who can be treated like a slave and will keep coming back for more.
3. My education/employment/salary history:
- B.Arch in 2005, working on M.Arch to be completed Fall 2007
- first job after graduation/no previous architecture exp: $31,200/yr (gross), no benefits, average of 50 hours per week in very small NYC firm doing mostly residential work
- second job in architecture/6 months exp: $45,000/year (gross), full benefits, profit-sharing, 401k in a large (well-known) corporate firm in the NYC area... I work with very nice (and competent) people and I get to work on a variety of projects (mostly large scale). I am treated fairly by my employer. I am never asked to get someone's coffee or wash someone's car. I think the work we do is interesting and challenging and provides plently of learning opportunities. And yes, I actually like my job!
By the way, good thread Strawbeary. The salary poll just doesn't do it for me. There are many small peices of imformation missing from the salary poll that make a huge difference.
$26k teaching 5 years ago
$39k now & haven't seen an increase in 2 years
$10k extra a year from smaller projects done solo
architechnophilia, you're in Jamaica, right? My father works in Bermuda occasionally, and that's piqued my interest in someday working on an island out in the ocean, whether it be Jamaica, BVI, etc.
I just haven't been able to find any info on the architecture industry (in a very cursory search). Any leads on where to find such info (growth, licensing, stats, reports, etc) ?
Didn't mean to get the thread off-topic, sorry!
Appleseed, there's a reason you make more! We were talking about this in another thread a bit ago, but those self employment taxes will take your last cent and not blink an eye.
Previous pay from internships:
tract housing, only ones who would take a second year student with no experience: $10/hr, part-time employee
custom housing, two-person firm: $8/hr, CONTRACT EMPLOYEE. This went up to $10/hr when he saw that I was good, but I was still getting screwed. This is where I learned that there's no poverty line for the self-employed.
much nicer custom housing and some commercial: $13/hr, still a contract employee.
large construction company, basically I was an RFI-machine: $14/hr, small bonus, and a $4k scholarship.
As long as your employer is willing to shell out the extra in your hourly pay that they aren't using on health insurance and vacation and such, it's not a problem at all. But when they think they can pay you a bottom of the barrell wage and have you as a contract employee, that's when it all goes to hell.
Okay, I'll bite...
My educational background: Long story, but I began a pre-professional BA degree in 1995, but I'm looking at finishing up a general liberal arts BA with a concentration in architecture this fall. Hoping to start my M.Arch. within the next year or so.
First job in the architecture business: Student intern at a large corporate firm for about $9 an hour + overtime. No benefits for most of that time, but that eventually changed.
Between 2000-2003, I was living in Boston, Chicago, and then Philadelphia, doing CAD monkey / job captain stuff. Salary was between $35,000 - $37,500 with benefits. Depending on the company, some places gave me overtime and benefits, other places gave me neither. The last place in Philly had pretty generous benefits plus a nice comp time / flex-time system.
2004: Moved to NYC, got a job doing pretty much the same stuff, salary bumped to $48,000 mainly because of the cost of living increase. Pretty standard benefits package, no overtime. I had been told that the company had very generous holiday bonuses, but I didn't stay there long enough to find out.
2005 - Present: Working back in Chicago, serving as a project architect / job captain / CAD monkey on a lot of corporate interiors projects. Started at $45,000, now making $48,000. Standard benefits, no overtime, no bonus.
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