Just graduated from a 5 year B.Arch program, and had these questions for a while. (What is the career trajectory like, will I actually be as broke as people tell me I will be?) So I visualized 13,000+ surveys Archinect has collected since 2013. The results are fascinating, and sometimes disheartening. For instance:
➡️ The median salary over all years is $64,000. Architects with higher salaries are generally more satisfied—but not always.
➡️ The percentage of female architects drops significantly with years of experience.
This is a beta version, so I would love some feedback! Let me know if anything feels unclear, or if you have ideas for new features or insights to include.
One question I have is if the age of the data points is being factored in at all? Old salaries are going to tend to depress the medians and possibly skew the picture of today's pay rates. There has been a clear trend to pay people more in the past five years or so.
Nov 21, 24 12:00 pm ·
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desaiwang
Yes! Thanks for this great observation! I think I should account for inflation-adjusted income to counter the skew!
I agree that salaries don't move in lockstep with inflation. Most places will do a small raise every year, but rarely do they effectively keep up with inflation, and certainly not the inflation of recent years. The shift I have seen in my locality was entry level salaries have moved from $37.5 - $42K ish to $50k - low $60k's. This has happened roughly between 2020 and now. The driver seemed to be the labor shortages associated with COVID. Candidates were not accepting offers made at the lower previous salary levels. That said, the slowing design market in 2024 has brought all of this salary growth to a screeching halt in my community.
Nov 21, 24 3:00 pm ·
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desaiwang
I have implemented a toggle on my tool that now shows inflation adjustments based on the average Consumer Price Index for US cities. Interestingly, the rise of architecture salaries is actually more than the rise of consumer costs. However, I think why people have been feeling that salaries growth is not matching purchasing power might be due to how drastically housing prices have increased (& housing often constitutes much more of our monthly budget than food and other consumer product purchases). See my newest comment for a visualization on percentage growth.
I graduated in 2002 with a 5 year B.Arch. Yes, I'm old. Get off my lawn.
I started out at $28k a year in Duluth, MN. Prices were different. I was able to afford a used car, an apartment to myself, and support my medical costs as a type 1 diabetic. I didn't have much extra money but I was still able to have fun.
I've never worked in a major metro area. The largest community I've worked in has been around 350k. I've only occasionally done overtime and typically limit it to around 100 hours a year.
Now I make in low six figures. I'm married. If it wasn't for needing health insurance I could retire at 55 years old. I am licensed in three states.
I give you all that background to say that you can make it in this profession without working long hours for no pay. It's all about the firm you work with.
"I've never worked in a major metro area." - That's the kicker, Odd. That said, I work in a metro area and have worked long hours many times but I wouldn't do it if the pay wasn't commensurate (at least for our profession)...
But we also need to realize that times have gotten much tougher for the youngins
Nov 22, 24 7:48 pm ·
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OddArchitect
Why is that the 'kicker'? I've had offers at major metro areas over my career. The pay was 10-15% higher but I didn't want to deal with higher cost of living and traffic. Even if you're fresh out of school you don't have to work in a major metro area at a large firm. You have choices.
Nov 23, 24 11:46 am ·
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bennyc
Fake news
Nov 25, 24 4:23 pm ·
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OddArchitect
Nope, it's true.
Now post up that identifying information you promised.
I think the drop in pay was due to a temporary inflation from post pandemic demand. I personally have not seen any pay drop in the areas I'm involved in [CO, MN, ND, WI, AZ, MT]
Nov 22, 24 10:06 am ·
·
sameolddoctor
Not sure pay has dropped in Cali, but has been pretty stagnant
The overall economy isn't that bad at this point. Probably nobody is coming to work today and being told that their paycheck is going to be 20% smaller. The wheels come of the wagon more slowly. In order, you will see 1) hiring freezes 2) bonuses and perks reduced and eventually gone entirely 3) layoffs 4) remaining staff get pay cuts. At #4, some firms will make you work full time for less pay, others may forcibly convert people to part-time status.
Depends on the position. Some people may have listed their current position but not necessarily their current pay or they just became that but didn't yet see their pay increased. Sometimes pay isn't immediately seen by an employee the moment they are moved into a new position. So it comes down to how the questions are asked and such.
I would consider that data point of $20.00 / hr. an outlier.
Interestingly, the rise of architecture salaries (blue) by percentage since 2013 has actually been more than the rise of consumer costs (Consumer Price Index, green). However, I think why people have been feeling that salaries growth is not matching purchasing power might be due to how drastically housing prices have increased (Housing Price Index is shown in yellow, & housing often constitutes much more of our monthly budget than food and other consumer product purchases). What do you think about this?
I've also implemented a toggle on my tool which let's you see the inflation-adjusted incomes. The median over all years is now $78,000.
When in the 'map view' it seems that a lot of the data points are removed. Why is this? I assume this is because not all survey information contained a location.
Again, great work.
Nov 25, 24 10:51 am ·
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desaiwang
Hi! In map view individual datapoints are grouped into hexbins based on the location, and the hover shows the aggregated group's information. However, I removed groups with size less than 5 because the aggregated info is very skewed (I don't think it's statistically sound to have averages if there is so few data points).
Do you think it's still worth seeing the really small group of points? I can show them but perhaps better to remove the section for most common information from hovers (because a lot of times there is no "most common" between 2-3 people).
Thanks for engaging with my viz and for providing feedback! I really appreciate it!
Nice studies, but by approaching this as a statistical exercises, you are only getting incrementally more accurate projections for the "average" architect. Except there's no such thing as an average architect.
There's a huge range in discrepancy in pay and perceive happiness. The profession determines the games you play. How happy and well compensated you are, depends on how well you play.
Architecture a tougher game than perhaps accounting (where a day's honest work more or less provides the expected return). Here, there are more landmines but also more hidden shortcuts; more a-hole bosses but good people skills can also give greater career boost; more demanding challenges (that brute force "hard work" alone can't overcome) but also more opportunities for talent and intelligence to shine through... It's rarely predictable, but perhaps more interesting because of it.
I suspect the data, however accurate, will not give you the sense of security that architecture will pay off. There is no guarantee, but there are LOTs of room for growth, course correction, and new discoveries.
Not happy where you are? Maneuver towards happier circumstances.
Not paid well? Learn to negotiate for better terms.
Side note on pay: how much you are paid is your "price", which defers from your "worth". Your price = your worth +/- your ability to negotiate. How much you are paid, is not your boss's job. Your boss's duty is to look out for the financial well being of the office, their responsibility is to pay you as little as they can get away with. Negotiate you down is them doing their duty. Your career is YOUR responsibility. It is your duty to negotiate as high a salary as you can (without putting yourself on the chopping block for being overpaid). Design professionals are not exempt from having to learn career skills. Instead of looking for sense of security from this Forum, make yourself more valuable, learn to negotiate, learn to differentiate yourself. Good luck!
This is very very good advice. The stats about money have nothing to do with satisfaction which is why I'm not really understanding how the OP is making that connection in the first place.
Nov 25, 24 7:01 pm ·
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OddArchitect
I think there is a metric for job satisfaction you can select from and filter results.
Nov 25, 24 7:04 pm ·
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bowling_ball
Ah, thanks for pointing that out (assuming it's true, I'm not looking)
Nov 25, 24 7:28 pm ·
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desaiwang
Thanks for the advice! I agree, negotiating and identifying where one provides value is important regardless of the industry!
Nov 25, 24 7:46 pm ·
·
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How much do architects make? And how is it related to job satisfaction?
Just graduated from a 5 year B.Arch program, and had these questions for a while. (What is the career trajectory like, will I actually be as broke as people tell me I will be?) So I visualized 13,000+ surveys Archinect has collected since 2013. The results are fascinating, and sometimes disheartening. For instance:
➡️ The median salary over all years is $64,000. Architects with higher salaries are generally more satisfied—but not always.
➡️ The percentage of female architects drops significantly with years of experience.
If you want to check out the visualization: desaiwang.github.io/architects-salary
This is a beta version, so I would love some feedback! Let me know if anything feels unclear, or if you have ideas for new features or insights to include.
Just need to get it out and say that that dot graphic would make for a good dress shirt pattern.
This is really good!
One question I have is if the age of the data points is being factored in at all? Old salaries are going to tend to depress the medians and possibly skew the picture of today's pay rates. There has been a clear trend to pay people more in the past five years or so.
Yes! Thanks for this great observation! I think I should account for inflation-adjusted income to counter the skew!
I don't think salaries have adjusted to inflation after covid, I might be wrong. It's a great visualization.
I think you're correct JLC-1. Then again, salaries haven't kept up with inflation since around 1999.
I agree that salaries don't move in lockstep with inflation. Most places will do a small raise every year, but rarely do they effectively keep up with inflation, and certainly not the inflation of recent years. The shift I have seen in my locality was entry level salaries have moved from $37.5 - $42K ish to $50k - low $60k's. This has happened roughly between 2020 and now. The driver seemed to be the labor shortages associated with COVID. Candidates were not accepting offers made at the lower previous salary levels. That said, the slowing design market in 2024 has brought all of this salary growth to a screeching halt in my community.
I have implemented a toggle on my tool that now shows inflation adjustments based on the average Consumer Price Index for US cities. Interestingly, the rise of architecture salaries is actually more than the rise of consumer costs. However, I think why people have been feeling that salaries growth is not matching purchasing power might be due to how drastically housing prices have increased (& housing often constitutes much more of our monthly budget than food and other consumer product purchases). See my newest comment for a visualization on percentage growth.
A bit of background:
I graduated in 2002 with a 5 year B.Arch. Yes, I'm old. Get off my lawn.
I started out at $28k a year in Duluth, MN. Prices were different. I was able to afford a used car, an apartment to myself, and support my medical costs as a type 1 diabetic. I didn't have much extra money but I was still able to have fun.
I've never worked in a major metro area. The largest community I've worked in has been around 350k. I've only occasionally done overtime and typically limit it to around 100 hours a year.
Now I make in low six figures. I'm married. If it wasn't for needing health insurance I could retire at 55 years old. I am licensed in three states.
I give you all that background to say that you can make it in this profession without working long hours for no pay. It's all about the firm you work with.
"I've never worked in a major metro area." - That's the kicker, Odd. That said, I work in a metro area and have worked long hours many times but I wouldn't do it if the pay wasn't commensurate (at least for our profession)...
But we also need to realize that times have gotten much tougher for the youngins
Why is that the 'kicker'? I've had offers at major metro areas over my career. The pay was 10-15% higher but I didn't want to deal with higher cost of living and traffic. Even if you're fresh out of school you don't have to work in a major metro area at a large firm. You have choices.
Fake news
Nope, it's true.
Now post up that identifying information you promised.
It fluctuates with demand, right now(11/21/2024) pay has dropped 20-25%
I agree with this sentiment. Pay seems way off from a high coming out of the pandemic.
I think the drop in pay was due to a temporary inflation from post pandemic demand. I personally have not seen any pay drop in the areas I'm involved in [CO, MN, ND, WI, AZ, MT]
Not sure pay has dropped in Cali, but has been pretty stagnant
The overall economy isn't that bad at this point. Probably nobody is coming to work today and being told that their paycheck is going to be 20% smaller. The wheels come of the wagon more slowly. In order, you will see 1) hiring freezes 2) bonuses and perks reduced and eventually gone entirely 3) layoffs 4) remaining staff get pay cuts. At #4, some firms will make you work full time for less pay, others may forcibly convert people to part-time status.
I’m in Bay Area and applying to job captain role. Pay ranges show a bottom of $70,000/yr and one job was $20.00/ht
Depends on the position. Some people may have listed their current position but not necessarily their current pay or they just became that but didn't yet see their pay increased. Sometimes pay isn't immediately seen by an employee the moment they are moved into a new position. So it comes down to how the questions are asked and such.
I would consider that data point of $20.00 / hr. an outlier.
Interestingly, the rise of architecture salaries (blue) by percentage since 2013 has actually been more than the rise of consumer costs (Consumer Price Index, green). However, I think why people have been feeling that salaries growth is not matching purchasing power might be due to how drastically housing prices have increased (Housing Price Index is shown in yellow, & housing often constitutes much more of our monthly budget than food and other consumer product purchases). What do you think about this?
I've also implemented a toggle on my tool which let's you see the inflation-adjusted incomes. The median over all years is now $78,000.
Very nice work desaiwang!
I have one question.
When in the 'map view' it seems that a lot of the data points are removed. Why is this? I assume this is because not all survey information contained a location.
Again, great work.
Hi! In map view individual datapoints are grouped into hexbins based on the location, and the hover shows the aggregated group's information. However, I removed groups with size less than 5 because the aggregated info is very skewed (I don't think it's statistically sound to have averages if there is so few data points).
Do you think it's still worth seeing the really small group of points? I can show them but perhaps better to remove the section for most common information from hovers (because a lot of times there is no "most common" between 2-3 people).
Thanks for engaging with my viz and for providing feedback! I really appreciate it!
Nice studies, but by approaching this as a statistical exercises, you are only getting incrementally more accurate projections for the "average" architect. Except there's no such thing as an average architect.
There's a huge range in discrepancy in pay and perceive happiness. The profession determines the games you play. How happy and well compensated you are, depends on how well you play.
Architecture a tougher game than perhaps accounting (where a day's honest work more or less provides the expected return). Here, there are more landmines but also more hidden shortcuts; more a-hole bosses but good people skills can also give greater career boost; more demanding challenges (that brute force "hard work" alone can't overcome) but also more opportunities for talent and intelligence to shine through... It's rarely predictable, but perhaps more interesting because of it.
I suspect the data, however accurate, will not give you the sense of security that architecture will pay off. There is no guarantee, but there are LOTs of room for growth, course correction, and new discoveries.
Not happy where you are? Maneuver towards happier circumstances.
Not paid well? Learn to negotiate for better terms.
Side note on pay: how much you are paid is your "price", which defers from your "worth". Your price = your worth +/- your ability to negotiate. How much you are paid, is not your boss's job. Your boss's duty is to look out for the financial well being of the office, their responsibility is to pay you as little as they can get away with. Negotiate you down is them doing their duty. Your career is YOUR responsibility. It is your duty to negotiate as high a salary as you can (without putting yourself on the chopping block for being overpaid). Design professionals are not exempt from having to learn career skills. Instead of looking for sense of security from this Forum, make yourself more valuable, learn to negotiate, learn to differentiate yourself. Good luck!
This is very very good advice. The stats about money have nothing to do with satisfaction which is why I'm not really understanding how the OP is making that connection in the first place.
I think there is a metric for job satisfaction you can select from and filter results.
Ah, thanks for pointing that out (assuming it's true, I'm not looking)
Thanks for the advice! I agree, negotiating and identifying where one provides value is important regardless of the industry!
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