Manage, direct, and Supervise team, and has done so previously. On the other end of the spectrum are the 10 states in which architects earn the least on average. Mechanical Engineering degree or one in Architecture with relative experience. 4 Arizona, which saw average salaries for architects rise by 21.6%, from $78,310 in 2016 to $95,220 in 2017.ġ0 States Where Architects Earn the Least Money Average income for architects grew by 4.9% from 2016 to 2017 in Alabama solid, but nothing compared to No. According to Business Alabama, the largest architectural firm by total design fees is Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, Inc. However, states like Alabama and West Virginia have median incomes of $46,472 and $44,061, respectively, which are among the lowest in the country yet architects in these two states earn on average $91,380 a year and $89,200 a year, respectively.Īlabama is home to many architectural firms. The average salary for a architect in California is 92,500 per year. Job Outlook Employment of landscape architects is projected to show little or no change from 2021 to 2031.

The top-10 states list is quite interesting, especially since it’s not a mere reflection of a state’s cost of living, which is often the case with many other occupations.įor instance, it’s not particularly surprising to see states such as Massachusetts, California, Alaska and New Hampshire rank high because they are also among the top-10 states with the highest median household incomes, according to the Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey. The median annual wage for landscape architects was 67,950 in May 2021. This number represents the median, which is the midpoint of the ranges from. Rena Klein, the principal of RM Klein Consulting, which works with small architecture firms, says: “Along with people being underpaid, people are undervaluing themselves in the marketplace.If the District of Columbia were included, it would rank third and shift Texas and every state after it down one rank. The estimated total pay for a Architect at CA Technologies is 159,795 per year. By giving employees a raise, firms might end up getting one too. “There is always someone down the street who’s willing to take a project on for a lower fee,” Williams said.īut clients might be willing to pay more, particularly in a heady real-estate market where architecture is in demand. Some firms will have to raise client fees, potentially making it difficult to compete against firms that can absorb higher labor costs. “Our clients don’t want to pay the higher fees,” says Craig Williams, the chief legal officer of HKS Architects, describing the new rules as a government intrusion on the private sector. The AIA declined to comment any further.Ĭritics of the changes argue that architecture salaries are often lower than other skilled professions because of the nature of the business. “Folks at firms aren’t too enthusiastic about sharing their thoughts on the potential impact of the new rule,” Matthew Tinder, a spokesperson for AIA, said in an e-mail. Several firms declined to comment, including Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Robert A.M. “That kind of loose, naive take goes hand in hand with a discipline that doesn’t see itself as a business, but sees itself as an art.”īut other architects interviewed for this story say few of their colleagues are discussing the changes, and some are unaware that labor laws even apply to salaried employees. “If you don’t have abor laws, you’re not going to understand how labor actually figures into your business plan,” says Peggy Deamer, professor at the Yale School of Architecture and a principal at Deamer Architects. “So they just make you work and work and work.” Hamlyn, who is now an intern architect in Montreal and paid hourly, requested that the name of the firm be withheld, since he considers the problem endemic to the industry.įirms may soon have to pay more attention to how their businesses operate, scrutinizing how much they charge clients and how late employees stay at the office. “Because you don’t get overtime, then the time is not really valued,” says Hamlyn, 27. Teams working on competitions put in 90-hour weeks, without additional pay, he said.

In 2013, Alexandre Hamlyn earned $2,000 a month working 50 hours a week at a large architecture firm in New York.

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