Compared with the local labor market
Principal Architect pay vs. New York
Across all employers in New York, the median wage for Architects, Except Landscape and Naval — about 10,360 people — is $99,280. Metropolitan Transportation Authority pays a median base salary of $99,675 for this role, in line with that figure — about the 50th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Metropolitan Transportation Authority sits in the local pay range
$63,920
$76,950
$99,280
$128,690
$165,660
Metropolitan Transportation Authority median · $99,675
The bar is the range of annual wages for Architects, Except Landscape and Naval across every employer in New York, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Architects, Except Landscape and Naval — about 106,770 people — is $99,280. Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s median base salary is in line withthat national figure, about the 50th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$62,300
$77,960
$99,280
$126,550
$161,420
Metropolitan Transportation Authority median · $99,675
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the New York range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 4 of 5 people in this role paid at least $25,000 in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at Metropolitan Transportation Authority is $108,678, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare jurisdictions
Principal Architect beyond New York Public Authorities
This role is reported in 2 jurisdictions. In New York Public Authorities, the median of $108,678 ranks #2 of 2. See Principal Architect across all of New York Public Authorities →
Highest-paying jurisdictions for this role
Median total compensation for comparable Principal Architect roles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.