Intelligence | Practice

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SALARY SURVEY

Earnings are down again, though a dive in benefits is seeing some stabilise. Aziz Mirza discusses this year’s RIBA/The Fees Bureau Architects Employment & Earnings Survey

SALARIES SHOW SIGNS OF EASING

THIS IS the first time the RIBA/The Fees Bureau Architects Employment & Earnings Survey, which started in 1987, has recorded salary falls for two consecutive years. Its main findings are: > Architects’ average earnings on 1 April 2011: £40,000

> Change in average earnings 2010 to 2011: 3 per cent fall

> Biggest fall is in the earnings of architects in the public sector

> A quarter of sole principals earn less than £20,000

> Average earnings of sole principals and salaried private practice architects has stabilised after falling last year

> Unemployed: 4 per cent; Not working for other reasons: 3 per cent – both unchanged from last year The survey shows average earnings have

fallen further in 2011. After last year’s precipitous 8 per cent fall, the drop this year is 3 per cent. So while the rate of decline has slowed, this year’s falls compound those recorded last year. As a result, the

profession’s average earnings are now back in cash terms to where they were in 2007. Factor in inflation, and average earnings in ‘real’ terms are at the level they were in 2000. This is only the fourth time since the survey

started in the mid 1980s that earnings have fallen. But it is also one of the largest falls; not as big as last year’s but more substantial than in 1992 (2 per cent drop) or 1994 (1 per cent). And since earnings rose in 1993 this is the first to record consecutive year on year falls. Again, after factoring in inflation, this brings 2011’s fall to 11 per cent in real terms. This real-money fall is second only to last year’s. Taking inflation into account, average earnings of the profession have fallen back by 20 per cent in the last two years.

Some good news That’s the worst of it over: there are some nuggets of good news. The largest single area of employment, salaried architects working in private practice, saw average earnings stabilise in 2011. This comes after a 6 per cent

TABLE 1: ARCHITECTS’ EARNINGS BY FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, 2011 AND 2010 Employment field (£)

2010 Sole principals

Principals in partnership ALL PRINCIPALS

Private practice salaried Private in-house Local authorities

Central government ALL SALARIED TOTAL

Base: All full-time architects RIBA JOURNAL : SEPTEMBER 2011

Lower quartile Median 21,250

36,000 30,000 33,000 44,250 38,338 43,250 34,000 33,350

35,000 50,250 46,000 38,000 54,000 42,000 48,500 40,000 41,416

72,000 66,200 44,000 72,750 50,000 55,000 48,000 55,000

20,000 35,000 30,000 32,780 44,663 35,000 39,250 34,000 32,500

fall last year. And looking within the data, we see that average salaries paid to employees in medium and large practices have increased. For example, average salaries are 3 per cent higher in practices that have 6-10, 11-30 and 31-50 architectural staff, although they are just 1 per cent higher in those with over 50. This trend is not echoed among partners and directors in the 6-10 or 11- 30 size groups – their average earnings have fallen while they pay their staff more. There is also good news for sole principals

– average earnings have stopped falling. This comes after a 13 per cent drop last year and an 11 per cent decline the year before. A note of caution, however: the lower quartile earnings of sole principals has dropped this year, meaning that a quarter earn £20,000 or less. This might reflect the continuing rise in the number of architects who are sole principals. Architects working for private in-house departments recorded a 2 per cent increase this year after last year’s fall. This continues to be the best paid sector in the profession. This year’s largest falls are recorded by

public sector architects. Those working for local authorities saw a decline of 7 per cent, while salaries for their colleagues in central government fell by 4 per cent. These reverse last year’s rises. As if falling earnings were not bad enough,

the provision of fringe benefits has continued to decline too, after last year’s survey showed fewer architects receiving benefits such as contributory pensions or company cars. In some areas the fall has been dramatic. The proportion of architects receiving a

2011

Upper quartile Lower quartile Median 50,000

35,000 49,225 44,250 38,000 55,000 39,000 46,700 40,000 40,000

50,000 70,000 65,000 45,000 75,000 47,000 55,973 49,000 55,000

2010-2011

Upper quartile Change of median 0%

-2% -4% 0%

+2% -7% -4% 0%

-3%