Architecture Salary Report 2017: Major Regional and Gender Gaps

Architecture Salary Report 2017: Major Regional and Gender Gaps
ClearEdge3D for BIM services has executed a survey with the aim of providing data on the salary status in the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry. The survey was executed among 6,500 executives in the field who were asked about their “pay levels, salary increases, and other compensation-related information.” The survey has received sufficient responses from North America and Europe, but not from South America and Africa, so the statistical facts are more valid for the first two.

The survey conductors have expressed their astonishment at some of the results, like for example, that more than 1/3 of the AEC industry has not received any raise during 2016, in spite of the growth in the industry for the last couple of years. They have also highlighted significant regional salary gaps, with practitioners in North America, generally, earning more than those in Western Europe. The survey has also confirmed a still existing gap in salary between males and females in spite of comparable experience.

The architecture salary report started by comparing salary to experience and educational levels. The results have, generally, shown a logical positive correlation between salary and experience as well as salary and educational level. However, when the regional and gender factors are taken into accounts those generalizations might not be very accurate.

This figure from the AEC Salary Report shows a logical increase in salary with the increase in years of experience.

This figure from the AEC Salary Report also shows a logical increase in salary with higher educational levels.

Then the architecture salary report gets to the interesting part where the gaps start to show. The first gap the reports comes across is the regional gap. The survey results have shown a surprisingly huge gap in the AEC industry salaries between North America and Western Europe. While 32% of the executives in North America earn more than $100,000, only 9% of executives in Western Europe surpass that figure. On the other hand, only 7.9% of North American executives earn less than $50,000 in comparison to an immense amount of 51.5% earning less than that number in Western Europe.

This figure from the AEC Salary Report shows gaps in salary levels between different regions.

Then, the architecture salary report moves to another unexpected finding concerned with the salary raise status in the AEC industry. According to the report, 34.4% of the field practitioners received no raise at all in 2016, and 18% have received a raise less than 2.99%. The most common increase percentage seemed to range from 3% to 7.99% with 32.3% of field practitioners gaining that much of increase last year. On the other hand, only 2.7% have seen an increase of more than 25% in their salaries in 2016.

Then, we finally get to the third and, unfortunately, the least surprising gap; the gender gap. The survey results have shown a general gap in salary between males and females with 30% of male practitioners earning more than $100,000 while only 23% of female practitioners. The gap is even more obvious with lower salaries, as survey results have shown that 36% of women earn less than $50,000 while 19% of men, almost half the percentage, earn less than that figure. What makes this gap questionable is the fact shown by the same report indicating comparable levels of experience between males and females, and a slight superiority for females in educational levels.

The rest of the architecture salary report goes through details like comparing salaries and raise amounts for different positions in the AEC industry. ClearEdge3D has made the entire report available for free to AEC practices, and it can be acquired from this link