People that are considering becoming an interior designer will want to know what they can make by being in the field. Interior designers jobs can vary greatly depending on their area. The average salary of an interior designer working in the United States is $66,000. This is only an average and there are many places in the United States where a full-time job as an interior designer can pay much more than this amount. Some of the best jobs for interior designers are located in Los Angeles, CA, Washington DC, Boston, Seattle and New York City.
Average interior designer salary is $41,000 per year. This is a range because it depends on the experience of the individual and where they live.
Average salaries for interior designers
Interior designers are responsible for creating beautiful and functional spaces in homes, businesses, and other settings. In order to choose the right career path as an interior designer, it’s important to understand how much money you can expect to make in this field. We’ve gathered salary data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports to give you a sense of what you can expect as an interior designer in the industry at large and then broken that down by the specific industries where interior designers tend to work most frequently:
Industry.
The interior design industry is made up of three main types of professionals: interior designers, residential designers, and commercial designers. It’s important to note the distinction between each title because they all have different sets of responsibilities and compensation.
- Interior Designer – An interior designer focuses on designing spaces for homes or businesses (or both). They may work on small spaces like a kitchen or bathroom, or large spaces like an entire home. They sometimes do research into current trends in decorating before creating a design for their client(s).
- Residential Designer – A residential designer specializes in designing rooms or homes for people who don’t need a full-scale remodel but would still like some changes made to their space. This could include painting walls or adding new furniture pieces as well as reorganizing existing furniture items so they work better with each other within certain rooms of the house (such as moving them around while keeping them in place).
Subsection: Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the mean annual salary for architectural and engineering services was $87,690 as of May 2017. The BLS also reported that employers in this field are experiencing labor shortages due to a lack of qualified candidates trained in these fields.
According to the BLS, about 111,500 people work as surveyors and cartographers; each has a mean annual salary of $76,020.* The field is expected to grow by 9% between 2016 and 2026.*
Subsubsection: $50,400
To determine your average salary, you’ll need to know the average salary for all interior designers. For this data point, we’ll use the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data for all interior designers in the industry. The BLS found that the median annual wage for all types of interior designers was $50,400 in May 2016.
Subsubsection: $65,200
If you’re looking for a high-paying, stable career, then an interior design position is for you. The average salary for an interior designer who works in the architectural field is $65,200 per year. This compares with just over $50,000 across all types of interior design positions.
- Architectural designers earn the most money out of all interior designers. They make about $2 more than those in other areas of their profession.
- For most people, getting into the architectural field means attending a bachelor’s degree program at an accredited university or college and then applying to work as an assistant under someone more experienced than yourself until your boss gives you bigger projects to handle on your own.
Subsubsection: $77,900
The average salary for an interior designer is $77,900. That’s a good amount of money!
Not only will you be making more than the average American, but you’ll also be happier. According to a study by the American Psychological Association (APA), people who make $50,000 or less are four times as likely to report feeling “not too happy.” And if you’re making $100K+, your odds of feeling “not too happy” reduce by half.
Subsubsection: $88,600
- The average salary for an interior designer in the architectural field is $88,600 per year. This is the highest average salary of any type of interior designer.
- Interior designers in the building/construction field earn a median income of $81,060 per year. This figure is based on a survey of about 2,000 participants from across North America who were asked to report their earnings over a one-year period between 2017 and 2018.
Subsubsection: $91,500
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for an interior designer is $91,500. This figure varies by industry. For example, in the nonresidential building construction field, the average salary is $91,500; it’s even higher in architectural services (at $99,000).
Subsection: Nonresidential Building Construction.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average annual salary for an interior designer in this industry is $70,430. The BLS also reports the average annual salary for an interior designer in the architectural field at $52,030 and in nonresidential building construction at $68,370. Interior designers working in offices of real estate agents and brokers make an average salary of $42,330 per year
Subsubsection: $48,000
The occupation of interior designer is one that pays, on average, $48,000 per year. Interior designers who work in the architectural field earn the most money at an average salary of $60,000. Interior designers who work in nonresidential building construction earn the least money at an average salary of $40,000.
The next highest paying industries are offices of real estate agents and brokers and healthcare practitioners and technical occupations which pay an annual mean wage around $50K.
Subsubsection: $58,400
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for an interior designer is $58,400. That said, there’s a big difference in pay between those who work in architecture and those who don’t.
If you work as an interior designer in architecture, you’ll earn far more than the average architect: $65,200 annually.
Subsubsection: $63,100
The average salary for interior designers who work in the architectural field is $63,100.
Subsubsection: $68,700
The average salary for interior designers employed in the architectural field was $68,700. The average annual salary for interior designers in this field was $36.27 per hour or $73,630 per year.
One of the most common jobs for interior designers is in nonresidential building construction, where they earned an average annual salary of $65,270. They made an hourly rate of about $31.42 on average or about $64,490 annually.
Interior designers working in offices of real estate agents and brokers make an average salary of about $66,770 annually with a mean hourly pay rate of about $30.94 hourly or around $63,000 per year on average
Subsection: Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers.
Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers:
Average salary: $64,400
The number of jobs in this field is expected to increase by 15% by 2024. The average annual salary for office managers is $53,370; however, real estate agents typically earn a higher income than other real estate professionals. While additional experience can lead to more opportunities and higher earnings, getting a college degree will give you an edge when entering the workforce. The National Association of Realtors provides resources on how to become licensed as well as information about continuing education classes and required exams.
Subsubsection: $46,800
The average salary for an interior designer in the offices of real estate agents and brokers is $46,800.
The average salary for an interior designer in the offices of other health practitioners is $52,600.
The average salary for an interior designer in the architectural field is $65,200.
Subsection: Offices of Other Health Practitioners.
Average salaries for interior designers vary by industry, as well as state and city. For example, the average salary for a residential designer is $57,000 in Washington D.C., but only $46,000 in Dallas. If you’re not sure which type of interior designer will suit your needs best, it’s helpful to know what other employees earn in that field to get a better idea of how much they make on average.
In general:
- Interior Designers earn more than Office Managers; they also tend to have far more job openings than comparable positions (e.g., Contractors). In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that nearly all (98%) new jobs will require at least some level of education beyond high school over the next decade.*
Subsubsection: $52,600
The average salary for an interior designer is $52,600 per year in the United States. This makes it one of the highest paying jobs you can get with an associate degree or less. The average salary for all occupations is $54,520 per year, which means that interior designers make about 5% less than other workers on average.
The median wage (which is the one right in the middle) for an interior designer working full-time was $51,580 as of May 2017—the most recent date available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). If your goal is to earn a six-figure income, being an interior designer isn’t necessarily going to help you achieve that goal; however, it does mean you’ll have enough money to live comfortably!
Interior designers who work in the architectural field earn the most money
If you’re thinking about becoming an interior designer, it’s important to know what kind of salary you can expect. Here’s a breakdown of average salaries for the profession:
- Interior designers who work in the architectural field earn the most money. On average, they earn $63,000 per year.
- Interior designers who work in retail earn less than those in other industries or organizations but still make a decent salary—$50,000 per year on average (compared with $38,000 for all other types).
Conclusion
If you want to know more about some of the top-paying career fields for interior designers, check out our article on the highest paying jobs in interior design. Of course, all of these salaries are just averages, so there’s no guarantee that you’ll earn exactly what they say. But as we said at the outset, we hope this information can help you get a better sense of whether this is a field you might be interested in pursuing.
