If you want to find out more about different accounting salary packages and no one around you seems to provide meaningful advice on the same, there is no need to worry anymore. In this brief article, we shall take a comprehensive approach towards this question to wipe out any doubts. Hopeful, by the end, you'll have gained a lot to share with your friends who are interested in pursuing a career in the field of accounts.

Accounting Salary Reviews

An accountant is basically a person who maintains the financial details of a business organization or an individual. These professionals are charged with the responsibility of reviewing and analyzing tax liability, profit and loss among other financial engagements of a company. As you can see, an accountant plays an important part in the running of any business enterprise.

The profession of accounting is wide and varied; there are many different categories of accounting jobs and a scholar aspiring to practice as an accountant can easily choose a career path of their choice. Lets us talk about several types of accountants in our attempt to understand the philosophy behind differences in accounting salary in different fields.

What is the philosophy behind accounting salary? Listed below are several important categories of accountants. They earn different salaries based on several factors that we shall discuss later in this article.

* Chief Financial Officer

* Internal Auditors

* General Accountant

* Comptroller

* Government Accountant

* Certified Public Accountant

* Forensic Accountant

One fact that you have to understand while researching on accounting salary is that each of these careers (as listed above) has different sets of roles. The basic academic qualification for becoming a fully-fledged accountant is an under-graduate degree, with a major in accounting and other economic and financial courses. Accountant students can specialize in different fields depending on the accounting profession of their choice. However, you have to understand that the area of undergraduate specialization does not necessarily influence accounting salary range.

What influences accounting salary range?

* Education Qualifications

It has been pointed out that the bachelor's degree obtained to practice as an accountant doesn't affect the accountant salary level. But if a job applicant has obtained post-graduate training in business administration (MBA), then they can earn a bigger accounting salary. Even applicants who have completed their CPA examinations can earn a decent salary. A survey carried out in 2007, indicated that Certified Public Accountants (CPAs; with a few years of experience) earn a median annual salary of about $92,000. A majority of them work as financial managers or company directors in top notch firms.

Advance skills in the field of accounts translate to a good accounting salary for the accountant. Online accounting training programs, among them online MBA degree courses, are becoming a popular way of bettering one's accounting salary.

According to recent surveys, the mean starting accountant salary, (as at 2009) was $40,000. One more study carried three years earlier (2006) stated, that the common annual starting accounting salary of professionals who earned an undergraduate degree was about $46,000. According to this study, those who possessed a master's degree enjoyed a higher annual accounting salary ranging from $49,000 to $50000 annually. From these findings, it's possible to see that if a person acquires more academic qualifications, they can enjoy a higher accounting salary.

* Industry and type of employer

Accountant's salary package is greatly influenced by industry ratings and type of employer. It is possible for an accountant to start his own practice (this requires a few years of experience) or they can work for organizations, government, hospitals, etc. Here is a summarized outline that can be used to understand the philosophy behind accounting salary depending upon the industry and employer type.

Employer Salary Range ($)

Self-Employed 30000-50000

Government 40000-70000

Big Companies 38000-51000

Community Service Organizations 33000-47000

Educational Institutions 33000-45000

Health Institutions 38000-48000

Contracts 40000-64000

Franchise 34000-52000

Private Practice 37000-51000

* N/B: These are approximates, we've collected them from different websites for purposes of illustration.


Hands-on skills affect the amount of accounting salary that one can earn. Accountants with practical work experience are better placed when it comes to taking home a big salary. Here is another table that summarizes the relationship between work experience and accounting salary. Have a look.

Years of Experience Salary Range ($)

Below 1 year 34000-46000

1 to 4 years 35000-48500

5 to 9 years 39000-53000

Below 20 years 39000-55000

Above 20 years 40000-57000

* N/B: These figures are approximates, we've collected them from different websites for purposes of illustration.


Accounting salary can be affected by the locality where one is based. Accountants working in large cities normally earn bigger salaries as compared to their counterparts who work in small towns. The difference in costs of living in these two kinds of geographical localities is the main reason behind this difference.

In summary, the main factors that are known to influence accounting salary differences include: level of education, type of industry (or employer), years of experience and geographical location. Please note that the figures used above are rough estimates that were obtained from different websites. The actual figures may be different under different circumstances.

Tips to earning the best accounting salary

In this section, we're going to explore ways through which you can maximize on your skills to earn a better salary. Here are essential tips to a better accounting salary.

* Invest in your education- Good academic transcripts are the only way to a high paying professional career. Be sure to work extra hard in your school work to achieve good results. Apart from doing your undergraduate degree, you can enroll for CPA courses and thereafter an MBA.

* Follow your passion-Career choice is an individual thing. Do not allow anyone to influence your career at the expense of your passion. If you're passionate about joining the accounts industry, decide upon the industry you want to work in and start working towards fulfilling its basic employment requirements.

If you are a graduate in this field of profession, it's our hope that you'll find this information useful while applying for a job. If you were simply looking for facts about accountant jobs, it's our sincere hope that this write-up has quenched your thirst for information. Remember to enquire more from particular employers for specific details about particular accounting job posts. All the best!

Author: John Townsend


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