Architects' Incomes in the USA: Are Architects Disrespected?

The Good Oil

We often get questions about the standing of the profession. These emails express a concern that architects' incomes have been falling for several decades. They also worry about a general decline in respect and authority for the architect.

“the reality is difficult to find”

Are our correspondents right? Are architects being disrespected? How much do architects earn? On this page we present some data for the American profession. As far as we know, this is the first time that such historical data has been obtained, analysed and presented. You're looking at a world first!

The reality, alas, is difficult to find. We here at the Key Centre have been investigating the economic and sociological standing of the profession for more than 25 years. It's all a mess, really. As you can see below, different sources give quite different results.

Note This page is a work in progress. Updates are posted annually, as US statistics become available. The data here is the latest available in Q1 2009.

Contents

Our sources. The data we have used.
An architectural population explosion. From 1850 to 1960, American architects were thin on the ground. Not any more.
Economic data about the occupation.
- Results from the Economic Census.
- Results from the Current Population Survey (CPS).
- Results from the National Compensation Survey (NCS).
- Results from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program.

Our sources

We are happy for any reader to point us to better sources, but so far we are using these:

The Economic Census (Professional, Scientific and Technical Services) (EC), conducted every five years by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. We have data from this census going back to 1967 (when it was known as the Census of Service Industries); quite a while. Here is what we found.
The Current Population Survey (CPS), a joint project of the U.S. Census people and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the U.S. Dept of Labor
The National Compensation Survey conducted by the BLS. Data for architects goes back to 1997.
The Occupational Employment Statistics program, also by the BLS.

An architectural population explosion

How many American architects are there?

The various statistical sources have some 107–150,000 Americans working in architecture (depending on the methods you use and who you ask) in the early 21st century. The NCARB claims about 101,000 registered architects. At census time a lot more people claim to be architects. The best you can do is compare like data with like.

We suspect that much of the feeling of malaise in the occupation arises not from economic realities, but from social ones. Quite simply: many years ago, there were very few architects in the USA, and they were very special people. Nowadays you can find any number of architects busking in subways. Not so special!

Take a look at the chart below, which shows the number of architects in the United States in terms of architects per million Americans. In 1850, 17 Americans in every million were architects. They were as common then as cartographers are today: you don't bump into many professional mapmakers on the bus, do you? Through 1910 the proportion increases: this is the period during which the American professions as we know them today were created. Then a plateau so that in 1960 166 Americans in every million were architects. Take a look at what happens in the decades after 1960! By the mid-2000s, architects were as common as ushers and lobby atendants (source: OES 2006).

It may be that the feeling of malaise in the occupation has little to do with economics, and more to do with the sociological bloating of the occupation. Too many graduates competing for the same share of the pie.

No. of architects per million capita in the USA. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Economic data about the occupation

Most economic data about architects (salaries, wages, compensation, etc) only looks at employees.

That's fine as far as it goes, but architecture has traditionally been an occupation of the self-employed. According to the BLS screed on architects, one in five architects are (is?) self-employed, about three times the rate for other professionals. This huge segment does not show up in any of the data sources we here at the Key Centre have available.

So we cautiously present our results for architectural employees. To eliminate the effects fo inflation, we present our data as ratios to the incomes from other occupations.

Results from the Economic Census (EC)

We have been studying this data since 1967. Good heavens! The data from the 2002 census was published in 2006. We hope to present a full analysis by last quarter of 2009.

Results from the National Compensation Survey (NCS)

The NCS charts the average hourly earnings of wage and salary workers in the USA. The NCS does not tell us how many architects it postulates for the USA.

For example, in 2006 salaried architects earned 65% more per hour than the typical American worker, and 7% per hour more than the typical ‘professional and technical’ worker. We used the public data query facility.

Salaried architects compared to…	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
All workers	1.59	1.64	1.36	1.47	1.48	1.55	1.76	1.80	1.62	1.65
White collar	1.29	1.33	1.12	1.20	1.21	1.26	1.43	1.46	1.32	—
Professional and technical	1.05	1.07	0.85	0.91	0.92	0.98	1.10	1.11	1.00	1.07
Salaried architects' average hourly earnings as a ratio of the earnings in other categories.

Results from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program

Our latest data is for 2007, in which year the OES counted about 107,000 architectural workers. The OES lists median annual earnings for a very detailed breakdown of American occupations.

Salaried architects compared to…	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
All	–	–	–	1.76	1.72	1.68	1.66	1.62	1.57	1.52
Lawyers	0.61	0.54	0.54	0.54	0.53	0.51	0.50	0.48	0.47	0.45
Librarians	1.24	1.20	1.14	1.12	1.11	1.07	1.04	1.01	0.97	0.94
Dentists	0.43	0.43	0.37	0.37	0.39	0.40	0.39	0.38	0.36	0.35
Vets	0.94	0.81	0.78	0.77	0.76	0.73	0.72	0.69	0.66	0.63
Carpenters	1.66	1.49	1.46	1.43	1.40	1.37	1.37	1.34	1.31	1.27
School bus drivers	2.54	2.40	2.28	2.17	2.13	2.10	2.05	1.98	1.92	1.84
Salaried architects' median annual earnings as a ratio to those in other categories.

Results from the Current Population Survey (CPS)

The CPS provides data back to 1995. Our latest data is for 2008, published January 2009. The CPS counted 150,000 architectural salary earners in 2008, a significant drop from the peak of 176,000 in 2005. We used Table 39 from this survey. It shows salaried architects' median weekly earnings compared to the totality of American workers, and compared to those classified in the ‘Professional’ sector. See the notes above. For example, in 2006 the typical salaried architect earned 66% more per week than the typical American worker.

Salaried architects compared to…	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
All workers	1.51	1.55	1.63	1.67	1.67	1.83	1.64	1.65	1.63
‘Professionals’	1.01	1.04	1.10	1.14	1.15	1.26	1.15	1.14	1.20
Salaried architects' median weekly earnings as a ratio to those in other categories.

Salaried architects compared to…	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
All workers	1.79	1.76	1.66	1.66	1.56
‘Professionals’	1.29	1.27	1.20	1.21	1.15
Salaried architects' median weekly earnings (MWE) as a ratio to those in other categories.