I am moving back to the US from London and am wondering the going salary for an Intermediate Architect , MArch, 3 years experience. I've been out of the game in the US for a while and just want to see what I can hope to expect.
Also, since I am a qualified Environmental Analyst/researcher I am curious to see how this pays compared to an intermediate architect.
Reponses from NYC, Philly and San Fran would be particulalry useful, but anything would be interesting.
hard question (because it depends on a lot of specific factors), but it would be reasonable to assume a $45-55k range in NYC/SF/LA/DC, and $40-50k in philly/boston/chicago.
A somewhat experienced architect, level 8, makes a national average annual wage of $51,771 (National Compensation Survey). Using the multiplication factors above, your salary expectations should be the following.
You can always get the compensation report from AIA, that's what firms use to establish salaries. It's devided up per city, size of firm, level of experience. Very handy to have.
Click multi-screen search -> All United States -> United States -> Architects, except Landscape and Naval -> level 8 -> Create customized tables page [with code 'NWU009999910200001710112505080'].
You should receive a table with data from 2007 to 2009.
I picked the July 2009 data that shows an average hourly wage of $24,89. Multiply by 2080 (52 weeks at $40.00 an hour) and you should get $51,771.20.
OES (occupational employment statistics) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics only gives wage information for a general position as a bracketed range of percentiles.
However, the NCS (National Compensation Survey) gives mean averages for positions by grade.
Go to Wolfram Alpha and type in "architect salary" for a similar result, but a much more pleasant experience. You can click on the occupation and salary for more info, and the sources are cited at the bottom of the page.
Doesn't pull data from Occupational Employment Statistics or National Compensation Survey. And it's ambiguous and how it gets to those results.
The whole idea of doing the research yourself is that you can explain to your potential employer on how you determined your own salary figure. Simply saying "I typed 'architect' into a search engine and it told me architects make $87,000," is not going to cut it. Wolfram Alpha doesn't also differentiate between an entry-level architect and one in the top 10% of the pay scale.
AFLArch, i'm glad you've gotten serious responses. you come across as very sincere and i did not want to mess with you before you had some legitimate answers. but i have to say, when i first read your original post, the response that came to my mind was, "tuppence a day..." "...feed the architects, tuppence a day, tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a day..."
the NYC salary rate varies wildly from firm to firm..... Expect Philly salaries on average to be MUCH lower than NYC. New England seems to have a higher salary range though
wow. thanks everyone. this has been very useful. I had been doing some search engine research but did not feel very confident in the data or sources I was seeing.
The worst thing is to go into an interview and feel uncomfortable about your salary request.. too low you are under-selling yourself and too high you look like a pompous ass...
I am used to the very standard £25K - £28k (if you're lucky) which is commonplace in London... even for very tealented and experienced designers
When asked the compensation question in the past I've responded, "that's a tough question. It seems that, depending on exactly what you have me doing, if my skills don't align particularly well, $30000 could be too high, and if my skills align exceptionally well, $70000 could be too low. I'm more comfortable first having a detailed conversation about how you envision using my particular skillet."
Once or twice, they accepted that as a fair deflection, did not get into the specifics of bow they would use me, and just came back with a number. I won. I forced their hand and had them put forth the number first and whoever does so in a negotiation is usually at a disadvantage. Then I can take my time and argue up or down and press them on what I'll do and what software, hardware and tools I'll have at my disposal.
Once or twice they actually do enter a detailed discussion about what my responsibilities will likely be. In these cases, I still won because I was comfortable naming a number first since I had a better sense of exactly what I was getting into. That is my 2 cents.
Jun 1, 11 8:13 am ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
Salaries for Architects in US Cities
I am moving back to the US from London and am wondering the going salary for an Intermediate Architect , MArch, 3 years experience. I've been out of the game in the US for a while and just want to see what I can hope to expect.
Also, since I am a qualified Environmental Analyst/researcher I am curious to see how this pays compared to an intermediate architect.
Reponses from NYC, Philly and San Fran would be particulalry useful, but anything would be interesting.
I realize this is maybe a very personal question.. but maybe a salary range would be less invasive?
also hearing from people who do the hiring would be great.
hard question (because it depends on a lot of specific factors), but it would be reasonable to assume a $45-55k range in NYC/SF/LA/DC, and $40-50k in philly/boston/chicago.
May 2010 Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island: $86,610
Philadelphia: $80,320
San Francisco: $87,060
National average: $78,530
Multiplication factor:
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island: 1.102
Philadelphia: 1.022
San Francisco: 1.108
A somewhat experienced architect, level 8, makes a national average annual wage of $51,771 (National Compensation Survey). Using the multiplication factors above, your salary expectations should be the following.
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island: $57,051
Philadelphia: $52,909
San Francisco: $57,362
You can always get the compensation report from AIA, that's what firms use to establish salaries. It's devided up per city, size of firm, level of experience. Very handy to have.
James
Could you give me a link to where you found that $51,771 figure?
thanks
Go here.
Click multi-screen search -> All United States -> United States -> Architects, except Landscape and Naval -> level 8 -> Create customized tables page [with code 'NWU009999910200001710112505080'].
You should receive a table with data from 2007 to 2009.
I picked the July 2009 data that shows an average hourly wage of $24,89. Multiply by 2080 (52 weeks at $40.00 an hour) and you should get $51,771.20.
OES (occupational employment statistics) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics only gives wage information for a general position as a bracketed range of percentiles.
However, the NCS (National Compensation Survey) gives mean averages for positions by grade.
Go to Wolfram Alpha and type in "architect salary" for a similar result, but a much more pleasant experience. You can click on the occupation and salary for more info, and the sources are cited at the bottom of the page.
Doesn't pull data from Occupational Employment Statistics or National Compensation Survey. And it's ambiguous and how it gets to those results.
The whole idea of doing the research yourself is that you can explain to your potential employer on how you determined your own salary figure. Simply saying "I typed 'architect' into a search engine and it told me architects make $87,000," is not going to cut it. Wolfram Alpha doesn't also differentiate between an entry-level architect and one in the top 10% of the pay scale.
AFLArch, i'm glad you've gotten serious responses. you come across as very sincere and i did not want to mess with you before you had some legitimate answers. but i have to say, when i first read your original post, the response that came to my mind was, "tuppence a day..." "...feed the architects, tuppence a day, tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a day..."
there, i got it out......i've been holding that in for about a day.....
the NYC salary rate varies wildly from firm to firm..... Expect Philly salaries on average to be MUCH lower than NYC. New England seems to have a higher salary range though
@James
perfect. thanks. How do you correlate Fed GS levels with experience in architecture?
I read that professional positions in the Fed system start at Level 7, so 5 years exp=GS-12?
Then for certain cities like SF it's an additional 35%, NY 29%, PHL 22%
I got these from http://www.fedjobs.com/pay/pay.html
Where did you find your multipliers?
wow. thanks everyone. this has been very useful. I had been doing some search engine research but did not feel very confident in the data or sources I was seeing.
The worst thing is to go into an interview and feel uncomfortable about your salary request.. too low you are under-selling yourself and too high you look like a pompous ass...
I am used to the very standard £25K - £28k (if you're lucky) which is commonplace in London... even for very tealented and experienced designers
@jmanganelli.. Touche
When asked the compensation question in the past I've responded, "that's a tough question. It seems that, depending on exactly what you have me doing, if my skills don't align particularly well, $30000 could be too high, and if my skills align exceptionally well, $70000 could be too low. I'm more comfortable first having a detailed conversation about how you envision using my particular skillet." Once or twice, they accepted that as a fair deflection, did not get into the specifics of bow they would use me, and just came back with a number. I won. I forced their hand and had them put forth the number first and whoever does so in a negotiation is usually at a disadvantage. Then I can take my time and argue up or down and press them on what I'll do and what software, hardware and tools I'll have at my disposal. Once or twice they actually do enter a detailed discussion about what my responsibilities will likely be. In these cases, I still won because I was comfortable naming a number first since I had a better sense of exactly what I was getting into. That is my 2 cents.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.