Archinect - News

More than half of architects work more than 40 hours a week

2017-01-09T13:03:00-05:00

In the first survey about the state of the American design industry, more than half of the 9,514 respondents reported working more than 40 hours a week, with the average logging in four extra hours over what’s legally required of full-time workers in the US. Of the design industries surveyed, those working in design education, public relations, environmental graphics, and architecture logged the most overtime hours.

This probably doesn't come as a surprise to any practicing architects—working overtime, often well into the night, is common practice in the field. Moreover, this counts logged hours. But, as everyone knows, architects often work extra hours without billing for it, whether motivated by love of a project or hope for earning brownie points with the boss.

The good news? 80% of those surveyed said they were happy at their job.

The Department of Labor made big changes to its overtime rules. How will this affect you and your firm?

2016-09-02T18:02:00-04:00

Thanks to recent regulations issued by the Department of Labor, more salaried workers will receive overtime pay, beginning in December of this year. Previously, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 guaranteed that anyone making a salary of $23,660 or less annually was entitled to overtime pay (at 1.5x time) for any hours beyond the 40-hour workweek. The DOL’s new rule doubles that threshold to $47,476.

Those employees making above the new threshold, up to $134,004 annually, are exempt from receiving such overtime, provided they fall into such categories as “executive, administrative and professional”. While this is a huge upgrade to the overtime law generally, the particulars of the ruling will still depend on a firm's size and location.

According to Archinect’s Salary Poll, the average annual salary for anyone 30 or younger (regardless of title, license, experience or any other variable) in architecture in the U.S. is $50,859—pretty close to that overtime threshold. For anyone negoti...

How will President Obama's move to require overtime pay change architecture?

2016-05-31T19:44:00-04:00

For decades, bosses [in certain professions] have groomed their assistants to be the next generation of big shots by working them long hours for low wages. Call it the “Devil Wears Prada” economy, after the novel depicting life working for a fictionalized Anna Wintour, the longtime Vogue editor. But now, with the Obama administration moving to require time-and-a-half overtime pay for most salaried employees making less than $47,476 a year, that business model is suddenly under assault.

"The change presents more than an economic challenge for the companies that rely on the willingness of young, ambitious workers to trade pay and self-respect for a shot at a prestige job down the road."

The article doesn't explicitly reference architecture, but as Archinect's past coverage on the state of internships in the field makes clear, it could. Many firms employ a business model that involves underpaying interns and other young workers – or not paying them at all.

Like many of the employers quoted in the article, some architects contend that this culture breeds better architects in the long run. Additionally, since some firms won't be able to afford overtime hours, their interns will end up getting less "training time" (and fewer opportunities to impress the highers-up).

Thoughts?

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