RIBA has issued new Practice Note to all RIBA Chartered Practices that they must pay equitable salaries to all employees, including support and admin staff and Part 1 Architectural Assistants.
In the new RIBA Practice Note: Workplace Wellbeing Note, practices are reminded that they are required to pay at least the Real Living Wage, or the London Living Wage where relevant.
Last month the Living Wage rates were raised to £12.60 an hour for the UK and £13.85 for London – Chartered Practices must implement these rates by 1 May 2025.
What are data points most at risk in the profession?
RIBA collects anonymised salary data through the annual Business Benchmarking Survey of Chartered Practices. The latest survey data, reflecting pay levels in May 2024, confirmed that not all staff are receiving the Real Living Wage. Data points to ‘Apprentices’, ‘Architectural Assistants’, and ‘Office management/support and admin staff’ being most at risk.
Within the lower salary quartile in London, Part 1 Architectural Assistants were at highest risk; in London and the South-West and Wessex region both Architectural Assistants and Apprentices (Level 6 or 7) were not receiving the then current Living Wage rates.
Analysis of salary data also shows an enduring gender pay gap of 16% and an ethnicity pay gap of 13%.
The Practice Note specifically recommends that small practices should check to ensure that support and admin staff are receiving at least the Real Living Wage for their region and that medium-sized practices should be reviewing the salaries of their Architectural Assistants.
It also calls for Apprentices in Chartered Practices to be paid at least the Real Living Wage for the hours worked in practice (usually 80%), and at least the statutory minimum wage for study days (usually 20%).
A separate survey of practice employees found that while most practices pay the Real Living Wage for their staff based on their contracted hours, many early-career staff do not receive it once additional hours worked are included.
Why the profession needs to normalise flexible working arrangements and not expect overtime not to be compensated
RIBA President Muyiwa Oki, who has championed measures to improve workplace wellbeing, said this week that the profession needs to normalise flexible working arrangements and not expect or require overtime that is not compensated.
"Architecture is a fulfilling but demanding career. Our profession is not unique in its culture of unpaid overtime, but the difference is that architects’ salaries don’t reflect the actual amount of work they do – nor the value of it," they say.
"My first priority as RIBA President, as set out in my Biennial Plan, is to champion measures to improve workplace wellbeing. Our profession is a force for good, but to reach its full potential, it needs a cultural shift."
Muyiwa continues: "Like many things in life, it’s about balance – we need to normalise flexible working arrangements, not expect or require overtime that can’t be compensated, and promote wellbeing to ensure people feel valued. A culture of long hours and low pay, after a long route to professional qualification, is an unreasonable reward for the effort expended to join our profession. It undermines our profession and excludes people, including those with caring responsibilities or disabilities. Attracting and retaining diverse talent is a prerequisite for delivering architecture that responds to the needs of everyone in society."
"This Practice Note is a strong reminder and cautionary note to all RIBA Chartered Practices that they must ensure fair and equal treatment of all employees, as a core principle of the Code of Practice they abide by.”
What else is in the Practice Note?
The Practice Note offers fresh guidance on how practices should approach overtime working, and reminds employers they need to take care that they are not putting employees’ mental or physical health at risk.
Architecture has a longstanding problem with a long-hours culture and it remains the case that UK employers are not legally obliged to pay workers for overtime. Subsequently, the Practice Note says it is therefore important for practices to understand what exactly is classified as overtime and to look at how flexible working hours and time off in lieu (TOIL) can help if extra hours are not being remunerated.
Flexible working hours allow employees to have more control over their daily work schedules, for example compressing contracted working hours over a 'nine-day fortnight'.
Additionally, TOIL is when an employer offers time off to workers who have gone above and beyond their contracted hours. Where an employee is not remunerated for regularly undertaken overtime or offered TOIL then the overtime hours may bring hourly pay rates below Real Living Wage requirements.
Surveys have found that working hours vary significantly between practices. Overall, average working hours in Chartered Practices are 37 per week. Larger practices tend to have slightly longer working hours, and smaller practices shorter.
The majority of RIBA Chartered Practices offer pay or TOIL for staff who work beyond their contracted hours – 53% offer it to all staff and 14% to some. This leaves a third of practices that do not recompense staff for working beyond their contracted hours.
Other surveys suggest that proportion of practices offering recompense to all staff for working additional hours declines as practices become larger.
At the very least, as the Practice Note states, practices need to take care that hours worked without pay or TOIL do not drag a staff member’s hourly wage below the Real Living Wage, which would mean that Chartered Practice requirements are not being met.
Download the Wellbeing and Workplace Practice Note.
Email RIBA Professional Standards team if you have any questions or need advice.
Text by Neal Morris. This is a Professional Feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas
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