Survey: It Pays to Hold CPA Designation

Accounting, finance, and banking professionals who hold a professional credential of some type, on average earned 30 percent more than employees in those fields working without a credential, according to a survey by CareerBank.com. Credentialed finance professionals, who comprised roughly half the survey's 2,800 respondents, earned on average $70,096, compared to $53,748 for those without any credential. Of the credentialed respondents participating in the survey, more than 62 percent held the CPA designation. The average annual salary for CPAs participating in the survey increased just over 2 percent from 2003, to $73,295. CPA salaries were not broken down by career longevity, but three-quarters of all respondents had been working in their current position for less than five years. Those in their positions more than five years earned 25 percent more ($75,858 vs. $69,791) than those tenured for under five years. In gender-specific terms, the average 2004 salary for women respondents rose nearly $2,000, to $52,012 while the average salary for men dipped $190 to $69,848. The was the fourth annual salary survey of finance professionals for CareerBank.com, a HR Web site for accounting, finance, and banking posts.