Architecture Pays

"Not only did the 2008 AIA Compensation Survey find that salaries for architecture positions increased more than 5.7 percent annually during that period—the strongest performance since the AIA began collecting compensation data in 1990—but also that they outpaced the rest of the economy.

Since 2002, the salaries of architects and unlicensed staff have risen an impressive 29.2 percent while the salaries of all private workers in the U.S. have increased an average of 18.6 percent. By the beginning of 2008, the average salary for an architecture job was $73,400; in 1990, it was only $34,000.

'Architects did some pretty significant catching up,' says Kermit Baker, the AIA’s chief economist. 'Architectural compensation, historically, has been quite low. It’s probably still quite low given the educational background most architects have, but it looks like it’s really made some strides forward.'"