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Salary with inflation

ArchKid

With cost of living increasing in every city, would you say that the salary of a firm on Glassdoor is inaccurate now? Did your salary somewhat jump due to this? Its really hard to know what your worth when the market is like this. 

 
May 9, 22 1:36 pm

Nope.

Nope.  My salary increased because I'm worth it and the firm wants to keep me.  At least that's what they think.   I'm fortunate that my yearly salary increases have exceeded inflation.  

It is hard to know your worth.  That is a problem all of human kind has struggled with since the dawn of time. 

May 9, 22 1:42 pm  · 
1  · 
rcz1001

Yeah, problem because in a commerce oriented society, you are worth what the person(s) are willing to pay. Of course, this means different numbers for each person making that decision. Sure, you can value yourself but ultimately, it comes down to when cash is transacted. Be it via employment & paychecks, or be it contract & what clients are willing to pay you and the payments. Ultimately, it depends on the buyer. The seller (you) can price your product (your labor, your service, etc.) however you want but to make the sale, the buyer (client/employer/etc.) has to be willing to pay that so if you are too high, you don't get to sell the product. You may advertise but not close the deal/sale/etc. Ultimately, you are worth what buyers are willing to pay for your product (your labor / service / etc.)

May 9, 22 2:15 pm  · 
2  · 
bowling_ball

Thanks, Google

May 9, 22 2:19 pm  · 
1  · 
rcz1001

Hah! Perhaps Google may come to the same conclusion but that's more or less a factual analogy. Ultimately, it is not a simple, this is the number you are worth. It's always up to the willingness for the buyer to pay for your product.

 It's basically the function of capitalism and the economy institutions and its mechanism. Like a salesperson, you need to convince the potential buyer to buy the product. An aspect of marketing yourself is like cars salesman or any other salesman. 

There are many tactics and approaches to go about such. Understanding and listening to the potential buyer and his/her needs, desires, etc. Then you can make a sale. Analogy to convey that architects are no different in that respect... many the style of marketing oneself. The same also with getting a job for an employer or even a pay raise or promotion. 

Sure, different strategies and approaches would be necessary, obviously. The goal is still about convincing the potential buyer (potential client, boss, potential employer, etc.) that you are worth this higher amount you want and not some lower price that they are looking at and are already paying. 

However, some strategies of convincing a boss is not going to work because they assume you will provide everything you are capable of at the price you are already paid at and that can be a difficult task to convince you can do more unless you are going to be offering something more valuable than what you are already doing. 

You might be able to negotiate inflation adjustment otherwise you would be inclined to leave to another firm that is willing to pay more for what you offer. Retaining core staff members are important to employers so there's a potential leverage if you are a key, core member of the firm and not as expendable as a newly hired fresh out of school individual.

May 9, 22 2:36 pm  · 
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I'm not summarizing any of that. ;)

May 9, 22 2:59 pm  · 
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rcz1001

Chad, don't. My first response to you is summary enough.

May 9, 22 3:17 pm  · 
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bowling_ball

JFC

May 9, 22 5:54 pm  · 
3  · 
newguy

"It is hard to know your worth. That is a problem all of human kind has struggled with since the dawn of time."


It shouldn't be.  It really should be simple arithmetic.  Employee's generate a finite dollar amount of wealth the company receives every year/month/bi-weekly paycheck.  Subtract the cost of overhead, and there is an actual dollar amount that could be determined and equitably distributed among the workforce.  But businesses don't disclose that info because it takes away the bosses negotiating leverage, and employees are often led to the false assumption that they are in competition with one another rather than in competition with their bosses who profit off of their undervalued labor.

Feb 23, 23 1:44 pm  · 
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ivanmillya

Aren't salaries on Glassdoor and Indeed based on submissions? Having perused the salaries, I feel that they range higher than what I've experienced as average. I personally get compensated what I consider to be fair by my firm.

May 11, 22 6:14 am  · 
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flatroof

With inflation, architecture firms have finally been increasing salaries in line with 2013 averages. 

May 11, 22 7:27 am  · 
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Volunteer

The government admits to 8.2% inflation, but that is without fuel and food prices factored in. Add those and the current inflation rate is likely about 14%. 

May 11, 22 7:48 am  · 
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flatroof

It also wildly underestimates rent increases because it surveys *homeowners* (who are probably like 60+ if they answer surveys) how much they would rent out their house for. And since these homeowners haven't rent since the 80's at the latest they say "I don't know like $600 a month?"

May 11, 22 8:49 am  · 
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Volunteer - I'd like to see the math of how you got from 8.2% to 14%.

May 11, 22 11:52 am  · 
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Volunteer

"The government admits to 8.2% inflation, but that is without fuel and food prices factored in. Add those and the current inflation rate is likely about 14%." Go to a gas station or supermarket and get back to us. 

May 11, 22 1:31 pm  · 
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Non Sequitur

just spend less on smokes and bullets to make up the difference.

May 11, 22 1:37 pm  · 
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curtkram

https://www.bls.gov/cpi/latest-numbers.htm

May 11, 22 1:39 pm  · 
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curtkram

as of april 2022, cpi-U is 8.3% since last year, US city average, all items. it is 6.2% less food and energy.

May 11, 22 1:42 pm  · 
1  · 

So it appears that Volunteers numbers are a rather exaggerated.

8.9% inflation for all goods per the .consumer price index.  


May 11, 22 1:50 pm  · 
4  · 

Not the first time Volunteer has exaggerated the numbers. The fact they keep doing it despite being corrected multiple times tells you conveying information accurately is not their intent with posting the numbers. https://archinect.com/forum/thread/150298028/inflation

May 11, 22 7:56 pm  · 
1  · 
rcz1001

Is the account "Volunteer" being used by multiple users?

May 11, 22 9:33 pm  · 
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Volunteer lies almost as much as x-jla. It's almost as if they're the same person . . .

May 12, 22 1:17 pm  · 
1  · 
rcz1001

Ah... ok.

May 12, 22 1:37 pm  · 
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∑ π ∓ √ ∞

They're just volunteering misinformation.

May 12, 22 2:28 pm  · 
1  · 
,,,,

Just be glad he doesn't count ballots.

May 12, 22 3:05 pm  · 
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reallynotmyname

Consider signing up to have job listings from Glassdoor and Zip Recruiter sent to your mailbox.   More and more of the architectural job listings are starting to include salary ranges, which hasn't always been the case.  Between these and the AIA and Archinect salary surveys, you can start to get some sense of current compensation levels in your town.  

Anything on the company reviews and salary areas of Glassdoor has to be taken with a grain of salt.  There is no verification or moderation happening there to prevent people from posting misinformation. 

May 11, 22 10:11 am  · 
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BlazeFoley

Architecture is a horrible profession.....entry level positions are largely around 40k in 2022......and when i graduated from an Ivy League Grad school program in 2001 was the same. Pure bullshit profession

May 19, 22 7:32 pm  · 
1  · 
sameolddoctor

Architecture is a bullshit profession, and so is your Ivy League degree. Case in point, young kids who want to go to GSD to study the cool shit.

May 19, 22 7:57 pm  · 
1  · 

Architecture is only a bullshit profession if you aren't good at it. It's also helps if you're not foolish and think you need to go to an ivy league school and practice in a large metro area.

May 20, 22 1:12 pm  · 
1  · 
ArchKid

I started off with 50K with undergrad. And I moved to 80K by my 4th year in the industry. But Its peak its def lower than other jobs. I feel like if you work at big firms, your salary will peak at 130k

Jun 21, 22 9:58 pm  · 
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RJ87

40k does seem low. I'm in relatively the same boat. Started at 52k a little less than 4 years ago & I should make around 85-90k this year. I'm always interested in what people expected to make, median household income in the US is $67,521 & that's with over 50% of households having two incomes. 130k doesn't seem so bad in that light. That said, the real money is in owning your own firm once you get some experience. You'll never make great money working for someone else in almost any profession.

Jun 22, 22 12:07 pm  · 
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RJ87

Granted, I'll concede that using averages / statistics is a depressing way to look at things if you get into it. 8.9 percent of Americans didn't graduate from High School,  62.1 percent didn't graduate from college & my personal favorite: 54% of U.S. adults - about 130 million people - lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

Jun 22, 22 12:14 pm  · 
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ArchKid

Always annoys me when I compare Architecture profession to the Tech world. Where we have 25 year olds making 200K.

Jun 22, 22 2:14 pm  · 
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Non Sequitur

Always annoys me when I compare Architecture profession to the Entertainment world. Where we have 25 year olds making 20,000,000.  Just because tech borrowed our "title" does not make it a comparable job.  

One of my closest friends is a tech bro who left the field after raking in the dough for several years.  It's not something I'd want to be doing and certainly not something I've trained for as well.


Jun 22, 22 2:23 pm  · 
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RJ87

But realistically, how many of those guys & gals are there? Cherry picking a high net worth job & saying architecture is terrible in comparison isn't fair. Hell Patrick Mahomes signed a 450 million dollar contract when he was 24. We should have just all been NFL QB's.

Jun 22, 22 4:34 pm  · 
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Non Sequitur

^and I’m sure that Pat Mahomes did not spend hundreds of hours rendering 3D models too. That shit’s worth at least 451million.

Jun 22, 22 6:04 pm  · 
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BlazeFoley

Yea I could have easily been a Medical Doctor....smart as hell....soo telling people, considering architecture as a profession, steer away unless you have a huge trust fund/money then it's is not a problem.

listen:  

May 19, 22 8:16 pm  · 
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Why don't you become a doctor then Blaze?

May 20, 22 1:11 pm  · 
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BlazeFoley

You should do that!

May 19, 22 11:10 pm  · 
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BlazeFoley

Another ditty for Architecture (especially for Sci-Arch students): just students they are


May 19, 22 11:41 pm  · 
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