The anonymous architecture salary survey, now in its fourth year, published its 2025 results online last week.

The survey, which received around 500 submissions, revealed that only two practices paid Part 1 employees more than £30,784 – the current London living wage based on a 40-hour week.

This is down from seven practices in 2024, although the London living wage last year was £28,808 .

Part 2 salaries did not appear to improve either – 90 practices paid their Part 2 employees more than the updated London living wage, down three from 93 in 2024.

The activist-led initiative aims to drive fairer pay for those in the earlier stages of an architecture career. Its anonymous organisers said that while salaries were rising incrementally, they were ‘still not keeping pace with inflation, the cost of living or the value of architectural labour’.

They added: ‘Living wage compliance is still elusive for many practices, particularly for Part 1 and 2 assistants.’

Its data also shows that unpaid overtime remains ‘endemic across all levels’ and ongoing regional disparities. London offers higher salaries, but also higher workloads’.

Survey responses showed it was not uncommon for employees to be asked to work more than 10 hours a week of overtime without extra pay.

A Pay 100 spokesperson said: ‘Our 2025 data reveals a profession still struggling to reward its youngest members fairly. We also continue to engage with our community, and it is abundantly clear that employees are still struggling with little support to address working conditions.

‘As a result, valuable talent continues to walk away from the profession in hope of increased wages and a more sustainable work-life balance.’

Last year’s survey revealed that an ‘unusually high’ number of people were leaving architecture for better-paid opportunities.

The survey results are split into three categories: Part 1 architectural assistant (less than three years), Part 2 architectural assistant (less than three years) and architect/architectural designer (less than five years). Salaries are given as a mean average of the submissions.

Reported salaries ranged between £20,000 and £33,300 for Part 1 assistants, between £24,000 and £44,000 for Part 2 assistants, and between £28,800 and £55,000 for architects/architectural designers.

Pay 100 was launched by a group of anonymous activists in summer 2022 to inspire wage transparency in the hope of driving up salaries across the industry.


Pay 100’s manifesto and aspirations

Encouraging – financial improvement across the entire profession.
Incentivising – practices to compete financially to attract the best talent.
Reducing – potential fee-undercutting between practices, so those who truly value their employees are more likely to win work, and in turn become more profitable.
Encouraging – wages to begin to keep up with inflation.
Combating – pay inequality.
Providing – a tool for recruitment professionals that actually appeals to potential employees, therefore allowing said potential employees to specifically target applications towards the most financially desirable prospective employers.
Encouraging – healthy role promotion within practices, so as those who have invested significant time in their role are compared less against others under the same title.
Helping – employers improve the success of their business via more satisfied employees and increased staff retention.