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The brand-spanking-new Archinect Salary Poll

For those of you who have been with Archinect since before the most recent redesign, you will probably remember the (very popular) salary poll we hosted. That poll was initially created very quickly in response to requests from our members who were posting the information to the discussion forum.

As a result of literally hundreds of requests, we've rebuilt the salary poll from the ground up to be more robust and helpful over time.

Enter your salary data now, 100% anonymously, to help build this new resource for the architecture community, and help increase the transparency into financial compensation records within our industry.

The Architecture Salary Poll
salaries.archinect.com

 
Apr 8, 13 1:32 pm
citizen

It looks great, Paul.  I think this'll be a real benefit to Archinecters.

Plus, it has the ultra-hip gender category of "other"...  This IS an advanced survey!

Apr 8, 13 3:40 pm  · 
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miesian

Done. Can't wait to see the results.

Apr 8, 13 3:48 pm  · 
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TED

Might be good to get a sense of impact of the 2008 crash on arch with survey which repeatedly comes up on post

--job titled "unemployed" or "not working in discipline"

--if part-time, how many hours per week are you working

--how long in the present job

then - perhaps student loan burden [which compromises job option]

--student loan total debth

--student loan payment per month

Apr 8, 13 3:55 pm  · 
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I'm curious - will this be ongoing/continuously updated, or once you've collected enough data, published as a snapshot, of 2013?

Apr 8, 13 9:25 pm  · 
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chingale

Yaaaay! Way to go Archinect!!!!!

Apr 8, 13 10:08 pm  · 
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LITS4FormZ

Fantastic job Paul! Finally a place that will show how the profession is really doing.

Apr 8, 13 11:01 pm  · 
 · 

Thanks for the comments. We've put a lot of effort into this. So far there are already a few hundred detailed salary submissions after we announced this here earlier today. I have no doubt that it will become a really helpful tool over time as the submissions continue to roll in.

Evan - this will be an ongoing survey, with live results. Eventually, when this becomes a few years old, you'll be able filter the results within dates ranges so the data won't become tainted by outdated salaries.

Apr 8, 13 11:36 pm  · 
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Paul, excellent! Can't wait.

Apr 8, 13 11:40 pm  · 
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Bump to make sure more people know about it and contribute.

Apr 10, 13 11:53 am  · 
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Archinect

We'll be making the results directly accessible soon to everyone, but here's a sneak peak for you guys reading this: http://salaries.archinect.com/poll/results

Apr 10, 13 12:04 pm  · 
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manamana

interesting. Perhaps add a way to convert or exclude currencies (display all in $ or all in GBP). ?

Also would be nice to be able to convert hourly to yearly and vice versa - use the *2280 convention or something similar.

Apr 10, 13 12:57 pm  · 
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everydayintern

Interesting to browse through the entries. Glad to see the ability to filter results (didn't notice this on the mobile version, maybe I didn't look hard enough). Would love to see the ability to filter location like in the Jobs section - by radius.

Concerns me a little that each entry is retained pretty much how it was entered. Yes, it is anonymous, but for users that have unique education / locations / etc. you could potentially place an entry to a name. Especially for those users with a profile set up in archinect that says where they went to school, where they work, and for what firm (easy to find out size of firm). 

Apr 10, 13 3:45 pm  · 
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everydayintern

+1 on currency conversion, and salary to hourly and vice versa

Apr 10, 13 3:47 pm  · 
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fulcrum

I agree with everydayintern; I regret putting job satisfaction score, since my employer can pin-point my entry.

Apr 10, 13 5:09 pm  · 
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Rusty!

Looks frigging great! Amazing job team Archinect. Zero complaints, and I complain about everything.

The salaries are actually better than what I thought they would be. This is a tremendous tool. 

Apr 10, 13 7:51 pm  · 
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Full approval from Rusty??!! Somebody pinch me.

Thanks for the feedback all.

We considered auto-converting different currencies but we ended up not doing it because we assumed that this tool will be used mostly to compare salaries in similar geographic locations. I like the idea of having an option to convert results into a currency selected by the user. Same with yearly/annual amounts.... however some people work freelance or part-time so their yearly earnings don't really add up to a consistent multiple of their hourly rates.

Regarding the comments about getting outed based on the information entered... we didn't really consider that as we assumed it was understood that whatever potentially identifying info would be included on the results page. The info that could ID someone is in the optional portion of the survey, so it's not necessary to include that. If any of you want to have their entry edited, just send an email to [email protected] with your entry details.

Apr 10, 13 8:08 pm  · 
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won and done williams

Something is wrong with the licensed/unlicensed category. Everyone is showing up as licensed.

Apr 10, 13 10:47 pm  · 
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I had that too. I put unlicensed and it showed as licensed. That is still about about 20 months away for me.

Apr 10, 13 11:01 pm  · 
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∑ π ∓ √ ∞

Looks good crew!

Apr 10, 13 11:15 pm  · 
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sameolddoctor

What is interesting is that after all the talk about Architects not caring too much about money etc., it seems that the more money we make the more "satisfied" we are....

Apr 10, 13 11:50 pm  · 
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Archinect

won and done williams - can you explain what you mean by "Everyone is showing up as licensed."? It doesn't appear that way. See this screenshot:

We are unable to duplicate this problem you are reporting. When we post test entries, they all display the "licensed" indicator properly.

Apr 11, 13 12:19 am  · 
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LITS4FormZ
Same for me, I checked "not licensed" on my survey and it shows up as "licensed"
Apr 11, 13 12:41 am  · 
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Archinect

This is very strange. We can't replicate that error. See this screencast showing a submission that selects "not licensed":

http://screencast.com/t/6QmGZLl0

As you can see, the entry does not show "licensed".

Here's a submission with "licensed" selected:

http://screencast.com/t/y0IL2y0CUOC

And as you can see, it properly shows "licensed" in the entry.

Apr 11, 13 12:50 am  · 
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legopiece


Thanks archinect for verifying my belief that I am highly underpaid for what I do. 


Apr 11, 13 9:14 am  · 
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wurdan freo

Of the 1000 entries so far, only 8% of them are six figures or higher. Of that 8% a significant handful appear to be entered in foreign currency that may or may not be more valuable than the dollar. Additionally the majority of six figure salaries that are based in the US are in East/West coast locales that have a significant cost of living factor, diminishing the purchasing power of the salary. It's an early sample, but I can see a ceiling on architectural salaries in the 80-120k range as an employee. 

Apr 11, 13 3:44 pm  · 
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wurdan freo

The highest paid person on this list, numbers wise, is from india at $3,000,000 rupees/year, but that actually is only worth $55,000 US. Would be nice to see translations to dollar value. It also appears to skew the info a bit if you entered an hourly wage versus a yearly wage. Would be nice to see hourly wages calculated out yearly for comparison. 

Interesting to note that those that listed themselves as Owner, Principal or Partner equals less than 3% of total respondents. 

Great info! Nice job Archinect!

Apr 11, 13 4:01 pm  · 
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Bench

Paul, I also had the same problem - checking "unlicensed" but my stats came up as licensed. At first I just assumed I had mischecked the form, but now that other people are bringing it up I'm sure I hit the right one...

Apr 11, 13 10:31 pm  · 
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Archinect

Can any of you try recreating this error by posting another entry? Please post an outrageously high salary for testing purposes so it will get deleted.

Apr 12, 13 12:03 am  · 
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won and done williams

Archinect: Seems to be working for me now (licensed - yes/no issue), but was not when I originally submitted data. Therefore the original data I submitted shows me as licensed when I in fact am not. Not sure how widespread a problem this was.

Apr 12, 13 12:45 pm  · 
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rationalist

Looking good, Paul!

Apr 12, 13 2:51 pm  · 
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Archinect

We've incorporated a preview for the salary submissions now, so you will be able to see exactly how your submission will appear in the results before you commit to posting it. This should resolve the problems with people not realizing their information could out them, and the problem that a couple of you have reported about the "licensed" field not displaying properly.

We're also now using emoticons to display job satisfaction!

Apr 17, 13 11:21 am  · 
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med.

Paul,

It's broken and needs a LOT of work.

The drop down does not work at all (won't let me put my age in)

The auto-drop down for colleges attended and cities you live in doesn't work.  Basically it doesn't do what you want it to do.

Just some food for thought.

Apr 17, 13 11:40 am  · 
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Archinect

med. - with over 1,400 submissions so far and no similar complaints it seems like this might be a problem on your end. Please go to this page and send your configuration details to [email protected] so we can take a look: http://supportdetails.com/

Apr 17, 13 11:52 am  · 
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sensation

The drop down menu for graduate school doesn't work when i try to filter searches.

Apr 17, 13 1:18 pm  · 
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Sensation - Please explain, more specifically, what problem you're experiencing.
Apr 17, 13 1:27 pm  · 
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Can't submit from work computer, will try when I get home. It doesn't recognize my city or school? Atlanta????  Hopefully it's just my ancient work computer running XP and some old version of IE causing issues.

Apr 17, 13 1:56 pm  · 
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Archinect

After some investigation we found that the updates we made yesterday were causing problems for some versions of Windows. These problems should now be fixed for those of you unable to submit yesterday.

Apr 18, 13 12:01 pm  · 
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Dapper Napper

I've tried to submit several times and it keeps asking for a Post-graduate school.  I even tried to skip all the optional info, but it still demands a post grad, then resets the form. 

Apr 18, 13 11:48 pm  · 
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nothing_is_everything

Hi!  This is amazing, and I think one of the best use of crowd-sourced, updated/real time design.  I've been trying to put something together like this for years to further the transparency and advocacy for young architectural practitioners.   One motivation for me (self-centered) was getting the AREs paid for (during the last year or so).  I was appalled that my former traditional architecture firm was not financially supporting licensure.  Meanwhile my friends firms in the same city, were compensated and encouraged through a variety of ways.  I thought that if this information was published, public, searchable, filterable knowledge, my firm would be able to see just how far below the bar they were on this one.  I want the AIA to publish this stuff.

When you go to interview at other offices, they tell you they base your salary offer on the AIA averages.  What about the other benefits and office environments/conditions that we are subjugated to?  What about the concessions we should think about while negotiating a salary, raise, etc.  The more this information is available, the less we have to complain, nag and ask about at our jobs.  

Here is a sample survey I put together to try to get a sense of office environment and employee practices - it includes everything from profit sharing to gym memberships, happy hours, and coffee situation. 

We are the new generation of young professionals in the digital age. (Digital generation?) Because we don't have our grandfathers' pensions or the security of staying at a job for 25 years, we have to negotiate and obtain the rights we have as employees.  Rather than exposing us as young professionals (ie. listing our schools and ages), this survey focused on exposing the firms we work for.

I would be more than happy to contribute to the archinect salary survey if this seems relevant.  Check it out!  And please, fill it in if so inclined!  It is anonymous.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkhVrNFQBWAPdGVfNTkxeWd0Tk14MWdXSWlDYUVLeGc#gid=0

Apr 19, 13 11:25 am  · 
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I apologize if this has been mentioned already, but it would be great to have a simple box for various degrees held without being specific to the school. Thanks!  

Oct 14, 13 11:38 pm  · 
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ark1t3kt

Bump to make sure more people contribute.

Jan 1, 14 10:53 pm  · 
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Good info.

Is there any way to fix the currency errors? Some of the salaries are in the million dollars range and are in foreign currency.

Jan 2, 14 1:59 am  · 
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bpete

I apologize if this has been mentioned elsewhere but I can't seem to find it... Is there any way to update one's submission to the Salary Poll? Through raises or job changes I'm sure a lot of people's information has changed. 

I could see how you could look at each submission as a snapshot in time of that person's career at that moment, but eventually that information will be outdated and skew the overall dataset, right?

Thanks!

Sep 15, 16 4:20 pm  · 
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Archinect

bpete - we recommend that you simply post your new salary as a new entry. Each salary submission has a month/year associated to it. 

Sep 15, 16 5:38 pm  · 
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