In Architecture, Women’s Earnings have Lagged Men’s for 130+ Years
As design and construction for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago got underway in 1891, organizers launched a competition to find a woman to design the Women’s Building. The winner would be compensated $1,000 as compared to the $10,000 awarded to the men appointed to design other Exposition buildings. In addition to earning a fraction of the pay, the female architect was asked to provide more services than her better-paid male colleagues.
While many things have improved for female architects since 1891, pay is still inequitable. The Department of Labor graphic below shows that in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ occupation category “Architecture, except landscape and naval,” full-time female employees were paid on average just 77.6% of what their male colleagues earned in 2019. This data does not reflect the impact of the pandemic that has had a disproportionately negative affect on the careers of women. The best way to change this inequity in compensation? Pay transparency.
Graphic from https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/occupations
In a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, researchers found that laws in Canadian provinces requiring public sector salary disclosure reduced the male-female wage gap by 30 percent.
Even where sharing salaries among co-workers is legally protected (see the Department of Labor’s map showing pay transparency protections by state), some employers might discourage it—but information is power. If you are an employee in an office that lacks pay transparency, consider sharing salary information with your trusted co-workers; see this HuffPost article for more. The New York Times has a guide for women researching and negotiating salaries.
Equal pay for equal work is a legal as well as moral imperative. If you are an employer, the American Institute for Architects’ Compensation Guide for Equitable Practice can help you pay your workers equitably and transparently.
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