Salary of an Amateur Architect
Architects traditionally have a reputation for lucrative earnings. When considering the salary of an amateur architect – such as professionals in training or at the entry level of the profession – it is easy to see where this reputation comes from. Even on the low end of the totem pole, architects tend to earn a healthy paycheck. However, earnings vary widely based on employer, specific discipline and location.
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Apprentice Salary
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[Based on a sampling of over 20,000 salaries, online earnings database SalaryDom reports an average salary of about $40,000 for intern architects in locations as diverse as New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Maryland. At most, an intern architect at Handel Architects in New York reported a yearly salary of $48,931.] According to the California Occupational Guide, junior architects earn about $3,995 per month, when adjusted to 2011 inflation rates. Similarly, inflation-adjusted monthly wages for assistant architects clock in at $3,685 per month. Though these figures vary by state, they fall in line with general reports from the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Handbook of 2010.
Entry-Level Salary
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At the bottom tenth percentile of architects – where most amateur architects find themselves –, the BLS Occupational Handbook reports a mean annual wage of $42,860 as of 2010. [Data from SalaryDom reflects this information; in 2010, the organization reported an entry-level salary in the $40,000 to $50,000 range for architects from locales as diverse as California, Illinois, Texas and Indiana.] Based on these reports, entry-level salaries of professional architects don't differ much from the salaries of junior and assistant architects, whose annual salaries average amount in the low $40,000 range.
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Entry-Level Wage
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In 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the mean hour wage of architects in the bottom tenth earnings percentile at $20.61. Those in the bottom 25 percent earned a mean hourly wage of $26.27. According to the same data, the median hourly wage was $37.75 while the top tier wage was $57.45.
Average and Advanced Salaries
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a mean annual wage of $78,530 for architects in 2010. In the top tenth earnings percentile, the BLS estimated a mean yearly wage of $119,500. At the top of the heap, "The Business Review" reported median annual base salaries for CEOs, presidents and managing partners of architecture firms in the northeastern United States at $200,000, as of 2011. The mid-Atlantic region followed closely with a median annual base salary of $193,000.
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