Royal Institute of British Architects Requires All Member Firms To Do Away with Unpaid Internships, Start Paying Student Workers

Continuing from that last post about labor practices, some big news coming out of the UK late this week. Ruth Reed, the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), has announced that the organization has changed their Chartered Practice criteria to instruct that every member firm must now pay at least minimum wage to all employed students, effective July 1st of this year. This move will do away with the unfortunately standard practice across the industry of unpaid internships, something many of even the top starchitect shops have taken advantage of over the years.