The goal of this resource is to promote a healthy, inclusive workplace that supports all employees and strengthens the overall firm relationship. Santa Barbara has an architectural hiring deficit – if you want people to stay and perform well, you must pay them a living wage and allow for work/life balance. It’s challenging to understand what is a competitive compensation package in the current environment. The AIA provides a regional salary calculator (https://info.aia.org/salary/salary.aspx), but it does not account for the high cost of living in places like Santa Barbara, and often the positions do not correlate to your firm structure and firm scope. We’ve pulled together a couple resources to help reframe your perspective on compensation packages.
Consider the following factors when deciding salary:
- Average rent in Santa Barbara:¹
- Studio – $1,403, 1 Bed – $1,667, 2 Bed – $1,951
- 28% average rent increase between 2018-2019
- Average student debt for an Arch. graduate 2019 – $40,000²
- Are you paying hourly or salary? How is overtime rewarded?
- Bonuses
- Guaranteed Firm Bonuses: Holiday Bonuses v. Performance bonuses
- Firm Based Performance Bonuses – based on firm annual profit
What other benefits are being presented in your job offer packages? Some of these options can not only be beneficial to your employees and overall firm knowledge base, but some of these options can financially benefit the firm (i.e. tax deductions)
- Health insurance options³ & Pre-Tax Programs
- Do you offer HMO, PPO, and HSA options
- Is there an option to add a dental plan?
- Is there an option to add a vision plan?
- Supplemental Voluntary Life Insurance
- Limited Purpose Health Care Spending Account
- Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account
- Retirement Options
- 401K options
- Firm matching
- PTO/Vacation Time
- What is your rate of accrual
- Promoting the use vacation time
- Flexibility with office and work from home options:
- Reconsider the 8-5 mentality and being mindful of employees commitments outside of the office
- Flex Time & Telecommuting Options
- Health Days – After meeting a hard deadline, does the firm take a day off?
- Professional Development Credits:
- Licensing Tests
- Professional Affiliation Credits:
- AIA membership
- Professional Educational Credits:
- Conferences & Seminars
- Commuter Transit/Parking Accounts
This is a detailed but by no means an exhaustive list of potential benefits and offer package options. Many of these examples were anonymously sourced from 2019 offer packages submitted from global firms. The size and project scope of your firm plays a huge role in what the firm is able to offer employees – have open conversations with employees about the nature of how the firm operates.
Sources:
¹https://www.rentdata.org/santa-maria-santa-barbara-ca-msa/2019
²https://www.aia.org/press-releases/6176847-architecture-students-call-for-action-on-s
³https://joinus.aia.org/benefits-and-perks-for-architects-full/