Architecture firms in New York City recruiting new staff may soon be required to include salary ranges in jobs postings, following the passage of a new bill through the New York City Council. The bill requires NYC employers with four or more employees to include the minimum and maximum salary offered in job postings for any position located in New York City.

The bill states that the range would need to “extend from the lowest to the highest salary the employer in good faith believes at the time of the posting it would pay for the advertised job, promotion or transfer opportunity.” Employers who do not comply with the requirement will be deemed to be engaging in discriminatory practices.

Having passed the New York City Council, the bill will now move to the Mayor of New York City for enactment. If signed, the bill would take effect 120 days later.

The move would have the potential to cause a significant culture-shift in architectural employment. At present, there are 495 active job listings on Archinect Jobs for positions in New York City, with 30 new listings added in the first five days of 2022 alone. Access to transparent data on architectural salaries on a citywide scale may therefore fuel discussion and debate on compensation in the profession, as happened in 2018 when the UK government mandated all large employers to publish annual gender pay gap data, offering an insight into salary distribution at large architecture firms such as Foster + Partners.

Archinect’s ongoing Architecture Salary Poll has also revealed insights into salary conditions across New York City. In our 2019 analysis of the salary poll data, which focused on the 2171 respondents working in New York City, we found that the average salary among respondents was $68,137 per year, nearly 5% higher than the national average. We also found that New York City’s corporate firms offer the best pay, where an average wage runs $72,799 per year, $5,724 higher than the figure for boutique firms.

You can help us in our continued effort to provide salary insights into architectural practice across the USA by anonymously responding to the Architecture Salary Poll here.