Open City debate to tackle low pay and undercutting in architecture sector

A recent Open City debate in full swing. Photo: Phineas Harper

‘Why do architects so often accept low fees, high work loads and poxy salaries when competing for jobs?’ asks an upcoming debate organised by Open City at Shoreditch arts centre RichMix.

Despite investing so many years of their life and large sums of money into their training, many architectural workers – both employees at big firms and the founders of small practices – remain on slim salaries well into their 30s.

The debate, which is one of a series created as part of Open City’s Accelerate programme, will explore whether practices routinely taking ‘Work in Kind’ rather than hard cash and low balling fees have been baked into the profession, driving down conditions and fuelling a culture of undercutting.

Speakers from outside the architecture world will argue it doesn’t have to be like this – in many industries wages and fees are set more clearly and more fairly with standard day rates widely adopted and insidious undercutting robustly resisted.

Join us for the next debate, where we will explore how to break the downward spiral, with speakers bringing inspiring stories of solutions to improving employment conditions from across time and throughout the world, as well as urgent problems requiring ambitious action here and now.