Most London studios fail to pay Part I staff London Living Wage

Seventeen of the 21 London studios surveyed for Part I architectural assistant roles are not paying the London Living Wage of £32,136, a threshold the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has declared a requirement for relevant practices.

The finding comes from the fifth annual salary survey by The Pay 100, an anonymous group that publishes pay data to pressure employers. Published over the weekend, the survey covers 127 UK firms, using mean salary figures and self-reported unpaid overtime hours submitted by respondents.

Who pays the most?

An engineering firm, not an architecture practice, tops the leaderboard. BakerHicks, an engineering and design firm, paid architects with less than five years' experience an average of £72,000 — the highest figure in the survey.

London studio Hopkins Architects came second at £63,700. Two more London practices, Samuel Chisholm Studio and Thomas Alexander Design, tied for third at £56,300.

For Part II architectural assistants, Transport for London led at £44,000, followed by Foster + Partners at £42,000.

How bad is the shortfall for junior staff?

The Part I results draw on 30 studios, 21 of them based in Greater London. Only four paid above the £32,136 London Living Wage that RIBA requires: Haworth Tompkins, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Studio McW and Studio PDP.

That means four in five London studios in the sample fall short of the requirement. Twelve of the 30 studios paid Part I staff less than the UK Living Wage of £29,328 — a gap of nearly £3,000 a year before London's higher costs even enter the picture.

What is The Pay 100 asking RIBA to do?

Alongside the data, The Pay 100 published an open letter to RIBA calling for action on financial wellbeing across the industry.

"Our aim has always been to create tangible financial incentives for employers to improve pay, empower employees to make informed career decisions, and encourage a healthier, more sustainable profession," the letter states.

It acknowledges the pressures practices face but rejects them as an excuse: "We recognise that architecture practices operate within a highly competitive market, often under significant financial pressure themselves. Nevertheless, the commercial challenges facing practices should not prevent the profession from addressing the deteriorating conditions experienced by many employees."

The letter is blunt about the stakes: "Poor financial conditions for staff are not merely an employment issue; they are a threat to the long-term health, resilience and future of the profession."

The group sets out two specific demands:

• Establish "meaningful minimum salaries" for RIBA chartered practices, structured across different architecture roles and rising year-on-year with inflation.
• Take full ownership of The Pay 100 and its annual salary survey, resourcing it as an industry-wide initiative.

On minimum salaries, the letter argues the market alone cannot fix the problem: "A profession cannot sustainably advocate for the value of its services while leaving the financial conditions of its workforce to market pressures alone. The RIBA should take a leading role in addressing this imbalance."

Can the survey scale up under RIBA?

After five years of running the survey on its own, The Pay 100 wants RIBA to institutionalise it. "We believe that improving pay transparency across UK architecture should be a core responsibility of the profession's leading membership body," it said.

"Under the RIBA's stewardship, the survey could benefit from significantly greater reach, sustained institutional support and broader participation across the profession," the group continued, adding that this would provide "a foundation for more comprehensive salary data, stronger engagement between employers and employees, and meaningful progress towards better financial conditions throughout the industry."

The Pay 100 has set a deadline: it wants a public response from RIBA by 1 December. Whether the institute absorbs the survey or not, the data now on the record — four firms out of 30 meeting the UK Living Wage bar — gives employees and jobseekers a concrete bargaining tool heading into next year.