COMP NEWS – A new survey on compensation at architectural firms sheds light on salary and benefits packages, showing that the national median salary for new graduates now sits at about $59,000.

Workplace satisfaction is like a stool, with three legs holding it up: an employee’s relationship with their boss, how fulfilling they find their work and growth opportunities, and their level of satisfaction with their compensation and benefits. If any one of those legs falls short, the stool tips and causes an imbalance in the employee’s workplace satisfaction, which can manifest through burnout or resignation. While AIA’s 2023 Compensation and Benefits Report, released in August, cannot fix a relationship with one’s boss, it can provide a glimpse into what it takes to keep the other legs balanced. To that end, we’ll unpack some of the report’s findings.

Beyond salary

Much is reported on the hard numbers in the AIA compensation tables. This year, AIA’s Salary Calculator reveals that the national median base salary (not including additional cash compensation) of architecture firm CEOs and presidents was $165,000 in 2022, while a new graduate had a national median salary of $59,000. The ratio of chief-executive-to-worker pay at architecture firms averages 2.8:1, nowhere near the 186:1 ratio in U.S. corporations, according to an analysis of 278 S&P 500 firms by the Wall Street Journal in 2022. Even for the highest paid CEOs at the largest architect firms (with more than 250 employees), that ratio is 4.6:1. This is not to suggest that these are the salaries that should be paid, merely that the compensation ranges in architecture firms are not as disparate within a firm by position level.

But there’s more to compensation calculations than just base pay. Additional considerations include household expenses. There are four areas of expenses that compensation and benefits need to cover—housing, health care, food and services, and debt. There are various views around the best proportion of income that should go to each of these areas, as well as the amount to set aside for savings and entertainment. Here’s where things get a little complicated.

Remote work has created larger pay disparities in architectural compensation. More than two-thirds of architectural firms are employing remote work with at least some of their employees.

Where you live matters. We know that expenses in cities across the U.S. vary—housing costs are the most obvious—but other goods and services, such as gas prices and dry-cleaning costs, also vary by location. And indeed, the AIA compensation data reflect those regional differences. For example, a firm CEO in Seattle has a median base salary of $180,000, compared with $150,000 in Philadelphia. Some of that difference is driven by the respective costs of living within those cities, and some employers adjust salaries accordingly; in fact, 61% of architecture firms report that they do so.

The rise of remote work has complicated some of the location pay disparities and is part of a larger trend. For architecture firms, the remote working population is now significantly larger than it was before the pandemic, but the share of firms that offer a fully remote option is relatively small, at only 25%. In comparison, 59% of firms (including 79% of the largest) have employees working remotely multiple days a week. That translates to approximately 69% of the workforce, including 82% of workers at the largest firms, taking advantage of remote working at some level.

Health care and dependent costs aren’t going down anytime soon. One of the most important benefits an employer offers from a bottom-line perspective is health insurance coverage. Even with health insurance, it’s important to map what a firm offers against the needs of your family. For example, do you have children who require childcare or additional services? Do you have elder care costs? Do you require prescription medicine to maintain a chronic condition? Do you need vision, hearing, or mental health coverage? These are important benefit areas to ask a prospective employer about—and to advocate for from a current employer.

According to AIA’s Compensation and Benefits Report, nearly all (97%) architecture firms offer employee health insurance coverage—100% of the largest firms (with more than 50 employees) and 92% of the smallest firms (with fewer than 10 employees). Most firms also provide dependent health coverage (85%) and dental insurance (86%).

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