Pay 100 Publishes Its Fifth Salary Survey and Asks the RIBA to Take It Over

The worker-led Pay 100 published its fifth annual salary survey on 1 November and an open letter asking the RIBA to set inflation-linked minimum salaries for Chartered Practices and to acquire the survey.

Sinan OzenNovember 12, 20262 Mins read1

Corner view of a pale stone 1930s office building with tall vertical windows and statues on columns, on a London street

The RIBA headquarters at 66 Portland Place, London · Photograph: Cmglee, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The Pay 100, an anonymous worker-led group that has tracked architecture salaries in the UK since 2022, published its fifth annual survey on 1 November. Alongside the results it sent an open letter to the Royal Institute of British Architects with two demands: set minimum salaries for key roles at RIBA Chartered Practices, and take ownership of the survey itself.

What the 2026 survey shows about architecture salaries

Responses were collected between 1 September and 15 October 2026. Employees report pay anonymously, converted to a 40-hour week, and the group publishes the average for each named practice across three roles: Part I and Part II architectural assistants with under three years of experience, and architects or architectural designers with under five. It does not reveal how many submissions it received, saying this protects respondents; the AJ describes the data as coming from hundreds of people.

Among Part II assistants, Transport for London leads with a reported average of £44,000, followed by Foster + Partners at £42,000. For architects, the engineering and design firm BakerHicks tops the table at £72,000 and Westminster City Council reports £53,000; the AJ puts the median for early-career architects at £42,500. The best-paid Part I posts, at Haworth Tompkins and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, sit at around £33,500. The tables mark the RIBA’s living wage requirement at £32,136 in London and £29,328 elsewhere in the UK, both for a 40-hour week with no overtime.

Looking down a stairwell with dark stone steps, glass balustrades and a café floor below — The main staircase inside the RIBA building · Photograph: DMS, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

According to the AJ, the organisers say the figures show the first rise in real terms since the survey began, although pay remains 4 per cent below its 2022 level. The group also claims that more than half of the 30 practices employing Part 1s pay below the real living wage, and that regular unpaid overtime can reduce take-home pay by as much as 24 per cent. These are the campaign’s own calculations from self-reported data, and the site describes its tables as an indicative snapshot.

Two demands for the RIBA

The letter asks the institute to build a framework of minimum salaries for key roles at Chartered Practices, increased every year in line with inflation. It argues that fee competition between practices is pushed down onto staff through low pay, long hours and poorer conditions. “A profession cannot sustainably advocate for the value of its services while leaving the financial conditions of its workforce to market pressures alone,” it says.

The second request is more unusual: the group invites the RIBA to acquire The Pay 100, take over its survey and fund its growth into an industry-wide initiative, and says it is ready to discuss a transfer. “Transparency is a necessary first step, but transparency alone cannot resolve structural problems that require leadership, coordination and action across the industry,” the letter reads. It asks for a formal public reply by 1 December 2026 and warns that the answer may be published in full.

Front of a symmetrical stone building with a tall central window above the entrance and a relief figure at the top — The Portland Place entrance of the RIBA · Photograph: Philafrenzy, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Where the pressure has come from

The AJ notes earlier calls by the campaigners for what they called assertive action from the RIBA, and recalls that its 2024 survey drew around 1,000 submissions and listed all 484 practices it covered. It also points out that Chris Williamson, while RIBA president-elect, floated an ethical fee scale to outlaw low fees. No response from the institute had been reported at the time of writing. For students and graduates comparing offers, the named tables remain one of the few public reference points on pay in UK practice.

Sources:The Pay 100: open letter to the RIBA The Pay 100: Part II results 2026 The Pay 100: Part I results 2026 The Pay 100: Architect results 2026 Architects' Journal

Written by

Sinan Ozen

Sinan Ozen is an architect and writer who creates architecture content for learnarchitecture.net and illustrarch. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture from Okan University.