Architects work too hard for too little - let's work together to change things! There are problems in architecture that are too big to solve alone - problems we have known about for years. Unpaid overtime, overwork, low pay, burnout and high pressure that erode wellbeing and drive people out of the profession. Between 2020 and 2024, Australian researchers conducted one of the most comprehensive studies ever undertaken into wellbeing and work culture in architecture. The findings confirm what many workers already knew from experience. These problems are no longer anecdotal. They are systemic, measurable and widespread. To address them, we need collective solutions. By organising together as workers, we can bargain for better pay and conditions and reshape the culture of the profession. We are the Union of Architectural Workers, and we want fair pay and conditions for all architectural workers.
Compliance with the award across the profession: there are currently practices underpaying workers even against the minimum wage set out in the award, which is unlawful wage theft against workers and undercuts architects who are doing the right thing. We need to work together to hold every employer to account.
Overtime pay for every hour worked: our salaries are undercut by unpaid overtime. We need to reform the Architects Award so it is black-and-white: every hour beyond the 38-hour work week needs to be paid at 1.5x the contract rate. Currently, employers use a disingenuous "Better Off Overall Test" to show that architects earned at least as much as the award plus 1.5x overtime, at their salary level. No one walked into a job interview and accepted a $100K contract, thinking it meant minimum wage with heaps of overtime.
Better pay rates: Architects' pay has not kept pace with other similar professions or the cost of owning a home or having a family. If we want experienced, skilled and passionate people to stay in our profession, it needs to be something that gives them the life they deserve. We are campaigning right now to Fair Work to make a 22% increase to the award rate immediately, to get our pay back on track.
The union's strategy rests on a simple premise: individual workers cannot shift an industry. Collective action can. Our approach combines workplace organising, public advocacy, and industry engagement to create the conditions for lasting change.
We start where the work happens. Every firm, every studio, every office is a potential site of organising. We train delegates, build networks, and support workers to raise issues collectively rather than individually.
We run targeted campaigns on the issues that matter most to architectural workers. Paid overtime enforcement. Transparent pay. Reasonable hours. Each campaign is grounded in data, legal analysis, and the lived experience of workers in the industry.
Architecture's labour problems are structural. They will not be fixed by individual firms choosing to do better. We engage with regulators, professional bodies, and industry organisations to advocate for systemic reform.
A union's strength is its membership. We are building a broad-based organisation that represents workers across the full spectrum of architectural practice.
Want this for our industry? Join the union.
