Accounting base salaries inched up again over the past year, while bonuses for lower-level employees decreased.
Accounting Today and its parent company Arizent conducted our third annual salary survey, collecting responses from accountants from firms of all sizes regarding their salaries, benefits and career trajectories. The survey found the median base salary was $73,000 for staff accountants, $98,500 for seniors and approximately $142,000 for managers. Salaries went up almost across the board.
Despite the year-to-year increase, accounting salaries are fighting to keep up on other fronts. The profession's old pitch was a trade-off of a low starting salary in exchange for an exponential increase by the time employees made partner. The issue is, young workers aren't sure they want to stay at the same firm that long — or even in the profession. Accounting firms are competing for talent not only with each other, but with financial services and tech companies that offer higher pay with the same or lower educational requirements.
"The pay is a real struggle," responded one staff member from a midsize firm in the Northeast.
Similarly, a manager from a large Southern firm lamented, "I'm earning way less than I thought I would."
As for partners, their base salaries vary greatly. At firms with less than 10 employees, they made a median salary of $150,000, with a range of $119,046 to $250,000. Partners at firms with more than 10 employees made a median of $260,000, with a range of $119,750 to $418,250. Partners at the Big Four and other billion-dollar firms can make far more, of course, but relatively few participated in this year's survey, and were thus treated as outliers.
Bonuses lagged this year, with a median bonus of $750 for staff, $3,001 for seniors and approximately $5,500 for managers. The most common types were individualized performance bonuses (42%), followed by profit sharing (28%) and tax season bonuses (20%). While respondents said that compensation and promotion practices can be unclear, most said that bonus criteria at their firms were clearer. (See pages 10-11 for details.)
"Understand how compensation works at your firm," advised one partner from a small Midwest firm. "What metrics are they using — if they are outdated, see if they are open to change. Our firm is very transparent about how you can make more money if you want."
In terms of tenure, the survey found that higher pay is more associated with staying and advancing at a firm rather than with frequent job-hopping. Respondents with higher pay said they were less likely to need to move jobs for a meaningful raise. This is to be expected, as longer tenure is associated with higher roles and, thus, greater salary bands.
But higher pay does not completely eliminate the interest in jumping jobs. Accountants earning $300,000 to $999,000 were more open to moving within the profession or into corporate or nonprofit roles. Forty-six percent of respondents said they would need to move to another job to get a meaningful increase in compensation, up 8 percentage points from 2025 and 10 points from 2024.
Additionally, the average salary was highest at CPA firms ($184,000) and private equity-backed firms ($219,000), while audit-only and non-CPA firms were lower. This is significant as private equity's infusion into the accounting profession has supercharged growth through acquisitions and investments in technology and talent. Bonus pay was also highest at CPA firms ($85,177) and lowest at audit-only firms ($12,000).
"It would be ideal if the salaries could keep up with and exceed CPI," said a manager at a midsize Midwest firm. "It doesn't seem like salaries increase as much as the cost of living. Ideally these two would be better aligned."
| Annual base salary (excluding bonuses and supplemental pay) | ||
| Firm size and role | First-third quartile | Median |
| Staff at all firms | NA | $73,000 |
| Seniors at all firms | NA | $98,500 |
| Staff/seniors at smaller firms | $72,725-$97,150 | $84,500 |
| Staff at larger firms | $63,750-$83,600 | $77,000 |
| Seniors at larger firms | $95,739-$119,425 | $104,500 |
| Managers at smaller firms | $104,750-$186,000 | $141,750 |
| Managers at larger firms | $118,000-$166,775 | $142,350 |
| Partners at smaller firms | $119,046-$250,000 | $150,000 |
| Partners at larger firms | $195,750-$418,250 | $260,000 |
| Sole proprietors | $80,000-$200,000 | $120,000 |
| Owners/MPs at smaller firms | $105,000-$250,000 | $150,000 |
| Owners/MPs at larger firms | $200,000-$600,000 | $260,000 |
Some methodology and notes to bear in mind:
- Arizent Research and Accounting Today conducted this research in June 2026, with 715 respondents, of whom 74% work at CPA firms, and the rest at non-CPA accounting firms (11%), tax-only firms (4%) and other related professional services firms (11%).
- 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, and were removed.
- To achieve statistical significance, "large firms" in these results are those with 10 or more employees; "small firms" have 2-9 employees.
