It's a good year to join the accounting profession, with entry-level salaries up significantly over 2024 — thanks in no small part to concerns that they weren't competitive with other fields that were luring away the next generation of accountants.
Firms seem to have made a concerted effort overcome that deficit, with the median salary for staff accountants up a whopping $10,000 from 2024, putting it more in line with salaries for those starting out in technology, finance or general business operations, all of which have been siphoning off accounting graduates for decades, contributing to public accounting's much-discussed "
Staff salaries aren't the only ones rising, though: Accounting Today recently conducted its second annual salary survey to create a snapshot of compensation levels across the country. The results are below, and show rises for many position, though not all (and it's worth noting that these increases don't mean the end of the pipeline problem by any stretch of the imagination (see our feature story, "
Below is our primary chart of accounting salaries for a range of positions at public firms, and then a number of graphs of other data points covering bonuses, employee attitudes, and more.
Position | 5th percentile | 25th-75th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
| Staff | $50,000 | $67,000-$85,000 | $75,000 | $130,000 |
| Senior | $68,000 | 82,000-$105,000 | 93,000 | $128,000 |
| Manager (smal firm) | $55,000 | $71,000-$125,000 | $100,000 | $170,000 |
| Manager (larger firm) | $85,000 | $103,000-$160,000 | $130,000 | $205,000 |
| Partner (small firm) | $55,000 | $101,000-$200,000 | $155,000 | $350,000 |
| Partner (larger firm) | $104,000 | $166,000-$330,000 | $210,000 | $932,000 |
| Exec committee member or service line leader | $78,000 | $140,00-$315,000 | $200,000 | $932,000 |
| Owner/MP (smaller firm) | $42,000 | $85,000-$200,000 | $123,000 | $400,000 |
| Owner/MP (larger firm) | $75,000 | $155,000-$398,000 | $200,000 | $1,000,000 |
Some methodology and notes to bear in mind:
- Arizent Research and Accounting Today conducted this research in May 2025, with 768 respondents, of whom 75% work at CPA firms, and the rest at non-CPA accounting firms (10%), tax-only firms (6%) and other related professional services firms (9%).
- All salary figures are national; regional salaries will naturally vary.
- A few results from very large firms (the Big Four and other billion-dollar firms) significantly skewed the compensation figures for owners/MPs, partners, and partners who are executive committee members and/or service line leaders.
- To achieve statistical significance, "Large firms" in these results are those with 10 or more employees; "small firms" have 2-9 employees.
