The fees vary from Region to Region and province to province (That’s how organised we are, hey!) ranging from roughly 20 to 50 euros. So as Ricardo Aroca would say, to be on the safe side, an estimated 30 euros per month without VAT (Most of the associations charge without taxes).
This would make for a bill of 150 euros per quarter. This is not as low as it can get, but it is far from the costs of a policy once liability is acquired, which need not be through works but rather certificates and expert reports, poisonous cupcakes, chairs that fall apart and dislocate some innocent being’s shoulder, etc.)
Actually 267.20 euros per month in the RETA. You’ll excuse me for removing the decimal points. After all, we are not scientists.
Translator’s note: mileurista is an expression referring to those earning 1000 euros per month.
3 minutos
Money, it’s a crime
Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a raise it’s no surprise
That they’re giving none away
Pink Floyd. Money.
If were’ talking about a piece of the pie, the metaphor, applied to the profession of architecture, could not be more dystopian. Neither sweet, nor colourful. And certainly no cherries. The issue of money in architecture, so often overlooked and nonetheless present, is more like the that they’re giving none away that Pink Floyd ends the refrain with than it is like the slice of my pie that it starts with.
Beyond intentions, wishes, or undertakings, and with the abacus in one’s hand, reality is a lot tougher than sheer passion. Without attempting to be exhaustive, here’s a list for you to starting adding up:
Professional association fee: 30 euros per month.1 Civil liability fee (you can live without it, but you don’t sleep very well at night) about 50 euros per month.2 Self-employment contributions into the Social Security system 260 euros.3
So if Mr Casio is not mistaken, without even picking up my pencil and turning the ‘architect switch’ on, it costs us architects 340 euros a month. And if the self-employed architect is actually self-employed (rare birds they are indeed) and, to be generous, works at home in a bathrobe, like the Jedi, we can add an estimated 25% for rent, water, electricity, and telephone expenses, another 350 euros, that is, 87.50 euros.
So, assuming (let’s try) that we already had the computer, the CAD licences, and so forth, the total amount at the starting block, rounding off to be a bit conservative, comes out to 430 euros. Every month. Come rain, snow, sleet or hail. Whether Toyo Ito or Joaquin Torres wins the Pritzker Prize (bets accepted). Overwhelming numbers, maths, indicate that the annual income and expense sheet would have to reflect a higher monthly income than that. It’s well understood that to break even, one can think of much more interesting activities – call me a hedonist – like growing wild lentils or revisiting “Family Doctor” with a semiotic analysis included.
If, for even greater joy, our simulated case study is a bogus self-employee (without any insurance or labour entitlements, no sick leave, no nothing) earning some 900 euros per month out of a faintly musty smelling envelope, that leaves them with 500 euros and an expression of yearning every time they hear the word ‘mileurista’4 like a fleeting illusion on the horizon.
Reality tends to be hard-fast and numbers even more so when they are in red with a minus sign in front of them. Passion is necessary. A lot of it. And so is a calling and a careful appreciation of what one does that usually comes with a certain ability to sacrifice, of on-going learning. But taking the calculator out for a walk from time to time is not a bad idea, if for no other reason than to find out whether or not we are practicing a complex profession, with everything that entails, including a respect for reality, or whether, as Zizek would say, we are applying ideology as a type of negation and. therefore self-censure. Or martyrdom. I don’t know what is worse.
The fees vary from Region to Region and province to province (That’s how organised we are, hey!) ranging from roughly 20 to 50 euros. So as Ricardo Aroca would say, to be on the safe side, an estimated 30 euros per month without VAT (Most of the associations charge without taxes).
This would make for a bill of 150 euros per quarter. This is not as low as it can get, but it is far from the costs of a policy once liability is acquired, which need not be through works but rather certificates and expert reports, poisonous cupcakes, chairs that fall apart and dislocate some innocent being’s shoulder, etc.)
Actually 267.20 euros per month in the RETA. You’ll excuse me for removing the decimal points. After all, we are not scientists.
Translator’s note: mileurista is an expression referring to those earning 1000 euros per month.
