Compensation Watch ’19: MBA Starting Salaries In Accounting/Finance Aren’t Too Shabby

Posted on by Jason Bramwell

After reading through the latest Business School Hiring Report from the Graduate Management Admission Council, there’s some good news and some bad news for newly minted MBA accounting grads.

First, the good news:

1. MBA starting salaries are the highest on record: Adjusted for inflation, the median annual base starting salary U.S. companies will offer new MBA hires in 2019 is $115,000, which, according to the report, is the highest on record. MBA salaries are much higher than the median salary offered to direct-from-industry hires ($75,000) and more than double the median salary offered to new bachelor’s degree hires ($55,000).

In addition, 56% of U.S. employers plan to increase MBA starting salaries in 2019, up from 45% last year. And 58% of companies offer signing bonuses, with a median signing bonus offered of $10,500.

2. MBA accounting/finance starting salaries second highest among industries: Among U.S. employers, median MBA starting salaries for new hires are highest in the consulting ($135,000) and accounting/finance ($125,000) industries.

Starting salaries for MBA holders in accounting/finance are higher than those with a bachelor’s degree ($65,000) or who are direct-from-industry hires ($85,000), according to the report.

3. Of the four U.S. regions, three have MBA starting salaries that surpassed $100,000: Northeast is first with a projected median annual base starting salary of $125,000, followed by the Midwest and West, both at $115,000, and the South with $95,000.

4. MBA interns on the rise: In the U.S., 58% of companies plan to have MBA interns in 2019, although business master’s interns are more common among European companies (57%) than those in the U.S. (23%).

Now for a little bad news on hiring trends:

1. MBA hiring down: Compared to historical trends, MBA hiring projections are still pretty strong, but for the second straight year, a smaller proportion of companies are planning to hire MBA talent compared with the previous year, the report states.

Among U.S. employers, 77% plan to hire MBA talent this year, down from 2015 to 2017, when more than nine in 10 U.S. employers planned to hire MBAs. Nearly seven in 10 European companies plan to hire MBAs in 2019, up from 2018 projections.

In the accounting/finance industry specifically, 77% of companies are planning to hire MBAs in 2019.

2. Hiring projections for graduates of accounting master’s programs not as good this year: The report also looked at the salary and hiring outlook for grads of specialized business master’s programs, including Master of Accounting, Master of Finance, and Master of Data Analytics.

For Master of Accounting degree holders, the outlook isn’t too rosy, as only 32% of U.S. companies plan to hire recent MAC graduates in 2019. It’s not much better for new Master of Finance graduates, as only one in three U.S. employers are looking to hire people with that degree this year.

The report found that the median starting salary for MAC new hires in 2019 is $75,000; for those holding a Master of Finance, the median starting salary is $85,000.

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Making Sense of Robert Half’s 2011 Salary Guide

Robert Half rolled out its annual salary guide today (available for download here) and they’re saying that “compensation for accounting and finance professionals should see commensurate gains” with the “slight uptick in financial hiring,” that RH predicted last month.

You could interpret this as exciting news since “slight uptick” beats the hell out of the consistent “disappointing outlook” that we’ve seen over the ars.

Anyway, Roberto reports that for most positions, salaries rose anywhere from 1% to 3% but if you’re the type to sell out to the highest bidder (you know who you are) you’ll be most interested in the following:

• Senior business analysts are expected to see the largest boost in base pay in 2011, with their average starting salary rising 5.0 percent to the range of $66,500 to $85,500.

• Projected base pay for tax accounting managers at midsize companies ($25 million to $250 million in sales) is $69,500 to $92,500, up 4.9 percent.

• Starting salaries for financial analysis managers at both large (more than $250 million in sales) and midsize companies are predicted to climb 4.8 percent; senior financial analysts at midsize companies are predicted to see their base compensation rise to $60,000 to $78,000, a 4.7 percent increase.

• Senior compliance analysts at small companies (up to $25 million in sales) are anticipated to receive starting salary offers between $58,750 and $75,250, a 4.1 percent increase.

• Average starting salaries for tax services senior managers and directors as well as senior tax accountants at midsize public accounting firms ($25 million to $250 million in sales) are expected to climb 3.9 percent in the year ahead.

• Base pay for senior auditors at midsize public accounting firms is expected to range between $62,000 and $81,750, up 3.8 percent over 2010 levels.

• Within financial services, compliance managers can anticipate a 4.4 percent gain in base pay, to a range of $64,500 to $89,000.

Emphasis is Bob’s. What do these numbers mean? Honestly, not much for anyone that is happy with their current job situation. However, since compensation news season has more or less ended, those that are not happy with the news they got this year will be looking to the hot positions. A little bit of our own digging and impressions are as follows:

Corporate Accounting
Mining through the report, you’ll be hard-pressed to find many surprises. If you’re looking for a Corporate Accounting gig, something with “Controller,” “Director” or “Compliance” in the title is going to have some of the highest salaries.

If you jump down to the rank and file you’ll find that if you’re a tax, IT or audit maven, then you’re likely to do better than your average humdrum general/cost accountant.

Likewise, an “analyst” of any stripe will have a little more earning power than your average non-analyst, although “Financial Analysts” saw a larger bump in salary than its fellow non-financial analysts.

Public Accounting
Salaries for tax, audit and “management services” are surprisingly tight with audit on the low end followed by MS and then tax. This is consistent across all levels (i.e. associate, senior, manager, senior manager/director).

Also noteworthy is that public accounting salaries keeps pace with the in-house gigs at their relative corporate ladder levels. For example, an audit manager at a “Large Firm” makes only $4k less than a Internal Audit Manager at a “Large Company” and actually does better than many analyst positions at the “manager” level.

In other words, if you’re considering a lateral move, DON’T. You likely won’t make more money and you may end up making less. If you’re dying for changing, this of course means that you’ll have to find your way into a position that is a step above your current job to get a significant boost in salary.

You could argue that based on the data, this report at gives a lot of credence to the “Staying Until Manager” when it comes to salary and entry into a top-level position. As for practical experience, that’s a debate for another post. And based on our traffic numbers, accountants are all about salaries.

Robert Half Releases 2011 Guide to Accounting and Finance Salaries [PR Newswire]