High Demand and Job Security

In today’s competitive job market, few professions offer the level of stability and demand as accounting. Every business, regardless of size or industry, requires skilled professionals to manage finances, prepare taxes, and provide strategic guidance. And with an annual projected demand of over 125,000 new Accounting positions over the next decade, the time has never been better to make a change.

OK, we’re with you. Granted firms have been laying off people left and right lately — and that’s not even getting into the more insidious silent layoffs — but generally speaking this is true. It could definitely be worse.

Related 2022 post that aged like milk: At Least We Aren’t in Tech, Boast Smug Accountants Who Didn’t Get Laid Off Today

Also the job market sucks right now for a lot of people unless you’re someone with an accounting background living in Manila but you know what, let’s move on.

Global Opportunities

Here’s what they have to say about the global opportunities afforded to the chosen few who take the blessed path of accounting:

Accounting is a truly global profession, with opportunities to work and collaborate across borders. As businesses expand their operations internationally, the demand for accountants with a global mindset and cross-cultural competence continues to rise. Whether you’re interested in working for a multinational corporation, a global accounting firm, or an international NGO, an accounting career can open doors to exciting opportunities around the world.

The biggest global opportunity afforded to accountants in 2024 is interacting with the ever-growing offshore team.

Diverse Career Paths

One of the most appealing aspects of an accounting career is its versatility, they said.

Accountants can choose from a wide array of career paths, ranging from public accounting firms to corporate finance departments, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and beyond. Moreover, within each sector, there are opportunities for specialization in areas such as tax planning, forensic accounting, auditing, financial analysis, and managerial accounting. This diversity allows individuals to tailor their career trajectories to align with their interests, skills, and long-term goals.

Alright, we’ll give them this one. Get through the public accounting gauntlet for two years and you can go do something better.

Intellectual Challenge and Continuous Learning

Do you ever wonder if they get paid off by the AICPA to say stuff like this?

Accounting is far from a monotonous profession. It requires analytical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a knack for attention to detail. As regulations and technologies evolve, accountants must stay abreast of changes and innovations to remain effective in their roles. This constant learning and intellectual challenge ensure that no two days are alike in the world of accounting, making it an ideal field for individuals who thrive in dynamic environments and enjoy tackling complex problems.

It’s also a great career for people who enjoy doing the same thing year after year after year after year after year.

Alright, here’s what we’re here for…lucrative compensation!

Lucrative Compensation

Beyond job security, accounting offers attractive financial rewards. The combination of high demand and specialized skills often translates into competitive salaries and benefits packages. The average annual salary for those with a Master’s degree in accounting is $80,000, whereas Accountants without a Master’s degree only average about $57,000 per year.

Hmm. Lucrative…

$80,000 isn’t a bad deal for someone from 2010 living in a LCOL city clocking a straight 9-5 five days a week. Lemme bust out a handy dandy chart here:

Oh.

Here’s another analysis that @kleib323 did on how much accounting salaries have increased since 2019 for partners and professional staff. Y’all are accountants so we don’t need to explain what the minus sign means in the % change column.

They would have been better off using lifetime earning potential in their argument, the math maths a lot better.

The post Bold Move Listing ‘Lucrative Compensation’ As One of Five Reasons to Pursue Accounting, Montclair State appeared first on Going Concern.

US partners at EY have been told the firm will hold back some of their pay for 2024 after a tough financial year that has left the accounting firm’s leaders facing criticism from their rank and file.

The decision to defer around 2 per cent of partners’ annual compensation was taken to help the firm manage cash flow, according to people familiar with internal communications, and has compounded disappointment over relatively modest pay increases for the financial year that ended in June.

…

EY has also cut the proportion of expected profits for the current year that it pays partners in advance in monthly installments, deferring more than usual to be paid after the end of the fiscal year.

So we can safely assume those accounting tricks they were going to use to plug the giant hole left by Project Everest didn’t work out eh? Managing Partner Julie Boland apparently got an earful from partners on a recent webcast, partners being annoyed that they didn’t get the million-dollar payouts Everest cheerleaders promised and wanting someone to pay for this whole mess. Remember when Carmine said the firm was missing out on $10 billion in consulting cash due to conflicts of interest Project Everest would have liberated it from? Maybe they shouldn’t have named it after a mountain known for hosting hundreds of dead bodies belonging to brave and adventurous people who attempted to climb it.

Let’s update that old slide EY created to sell the Project Everest audit/consulting split to staff.

Related:

Anyone at EY who got boned on a promotion and/or bonus this year — and there were many — should at least feel somewhat better knowing partners got screwed a little too. Maybe.

Will the deferred pay make its way back into partners’ pockets when consulting warms up again? Nope. FT says they’ll have to wait until they retire or leave “since it will be added to the capital they are required to keep in the firm.”

EY revenue isn’t out yet, it’s either them or PwC due to report next after Deloitte. Our guess was PwC due to their recent layoffs which often accompany crunching of the final numbers for the year but who knows at this point. EY’s revenue results usually show up mid-to-late September and PwC in October. Clearly EY is deferring the matter.

What we do know is it’s safe to assume Deloitte has won the revenue race for FY24.

EY to hold back some pay from US partners after tough year [Financial Times]

The post Well F**k EY Partners Then I Guess appeared first on Going Concern.

Text:

It has come to our attention that a “student-generated salary transparency spreadsheet” is being circulated, which may contain confidential information from offer letters. I am writing to remind you of the importance of maintaining confidentiality, particularly regarding sensitive personal and professional details.

As you know, our industry places a high value on confidentiality. Every day in the field of accounting, you will be entrusted with clients’ sensitive information, and they will rely on you to protect it. Sharing specific details from offer letters, including salary and benefits, is not only unprofessional but can also have serious consequences for you and others [Ed. note: By “others” this ethically compromised shill means accounting firms that would much prefer to cheat you]. Therefore, I ask that you cease using and sharing any such spreadsheets immediately and refrain from disclosing specific compensation details for any reason.

You may continue to do general research and use past outcome reports to make informed decisions on what you wish to say in your negotiation session. I highly recommend making an appointment with me before navigating this discussion.

As Aspiring CPAs, let’s make better decisions going [cut off]

So where exactly in the AICPA Code of Conduct does it forbid this activity? Granted I haven’t read the whole thing in years. If it’s on the same level as clients’ sensitive information, it should be immediately following the section on client confidential information. Except that would be ILLEGAL.

Read the National Labor Relations Act, prof.

Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act), employees have the right to communicate with their coworkers about their wages, as well as with labor organizations, worker centers, the media, and the public. Wages are a vital term and condition of employment, and discussions of wages are often preliminary to organizing or other actions for mutual aid or protection.

The only employers exempt from this are:

• Federal, state and local governments, including public schools, libraries, and parks, Federal Reserve banks, and wholly-owned government corporations.
• Employers who employ only agricultural laborers, those engaged in farming operations that cultivate or harvest agricultural commodities or prepare commodities for delivery.
• Employers subject to the Railway Labor Act, such as interstate railroads and airlines.

Companies that have a minimum of ONE contract with the government — so, most consulting firms — additionally fall under Executive Order 11246 which prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discharging or otherwise discriminating against their employees and job applicants for discussing, disclosing, or inquiring about compensation.

Generally speaking, any business or organization that (1) holds a single federal contract, subcontract, or federally assisted construction contract in excess of $10,000; (2) has federal contracts or subcontracts that have a combined total in excess of $10,000 in any 12-month period; or (3) holds government bills of lading, serves as a depository of federal funds, or is an issuing and paying agency for U.S. savings bonds and notes in any amount will be subject to the requirements of Executive Order 11246.

Hey kids, be sure you’re not just sharing those salaries amongst yourselves but plug them into Big 4 Transparency, too. Post them everywhere. Print it out and paper the professor’s office. Have T-shirts made and wear them to class.

The post Friendly Reminder That Sharing Your Salary Data is Not Only Legal, It’s Encouraged appeared first on Going Concern.

TLDR: Big D partners won this round by quite a bit.

Woe Be Unto PwC UK Partners

PwC UK partners pocketed £862,000 on average for the year ended June 30, 2024 — that works out to more than $1.14 million in freedom units. This is down from £906,000 in 2023 and way down from 2022’s record of £1 million, the latter having been boosted by the sale of PwC’s Global Mobility Tax and Immigration Services business. Total revenue at PwC UK was £6.3 billion ($8.4 billion USD) for 2024, heavily bolstered by 26% growth in the Middle East business while the UK business trudged along at 3% growth overall.

Revenue totals for PwC UK:

Now Let’s See Why They’re Called Big D

Deloitte didn’t have a spectacular year either yet its partners still took home an average of £1.01 million for the year ended May 31. Revenue results released this week show an increase of 2.4% to £5.7 billion ($7.6 billion USD). So they made less than PwC without a Middle East of their own to carry them and partner pay dropped by 5% but still beat PwC in partner take.

Consulting revenues contracted by 1% from £1.6 billion in FY23 to £1.58 billion in FY24 and Financial Advisory “faced a challenging market” to come out at £653 million in FY24 (down from £669m in FY23).

Deloitte didn’t whip up a snazzy autumnal-colored chart for their revenue results, just this screenshot of a table in what we assume is Word.

Since September of 2023, Deloitte has laid off nearly 1,000 people (that we’re aware of). Said the firm in their revenue announcement:

In response to a challenging market we had to take the difficult decision of making a number of targeted redundancies early in the year. However, we have continued to hire in areas of growth, with 3,387 new colleagues, including 2,150 graduates, apprentices and interns joining the firm. 6,800 of our 27,000 people were promoted this year – 80 of them to partner.

As of June 2024, the number of partners at Deloitte UK is 1,369, 30% of whom are women.

More:

• PwC UK partner pay falls to £862,000 as growth slows [FT]
• Deloitte UK partners pocket £1mn despite slowdown [FT]

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While we await EY revenue numbers that should drop some time next month, sources inside EY are running to The Times to say partners are being warned of a second year of pay cuts ahead.

Partner pay at EY is set to fall for the second year in a row while senior staff will forgo a pay rise, in a sign that professional services firms are still battling a downturn.

Benoit Laclau, the firm’s managing partner who runs the consulting division for UK and Ireland, told senior managers and directors on a call last week that average partner pay would be down this year, according to EY sources.

But we already knew the partners have been warned, stories about it came out back in April. Prior to the end of EY’s fiscal year on June 30, EY UK & Ireland Managing Partner, Finance and Transformation, Stuart Gregory gave a presentation to the partners letting them know partner profit could drop as much as 15 percent this year. Based on prior year partner payouts, a 15 percent drop would be somewhere in the neighborhood of £646k ($865k USD), putting them only slightly above 2020’s low of £667k.

2023 was the first time EY UK partner profits had taken a hit since all that stuff happened with a certain virus we don’t talk about anymore. Partner pay at EY UK so far for this decade:

• 2024: ?
• 2023: £761,000
• 2022: £803,000
• 2021: £749,000
• 2020: £667,000
• 2019: £679,000

Earlier this month it was reported that many service lines at EY UK received pay cuts for raises this year.

The post EY UK Partners Warned Again Pay Will Suck This Year appeared first on Going Concern.

They’re seeking a corporate controller with a bachelor’s in accounting or finance, a minimum of 10 years’ experience, and the usual Office proficiency one would expect in a controller with at least a decade in the biz.

Additionally, it’s a “fast-paced environment” which we know translates into “dumpster fire” because no one can do their fucking job and therefore yours is constantly harder.

In this role, the experienced and stress-free controller will be expected to manage the day-to-day activities of the accounting department (is there an actual department or just one mature woman doing payroll who cries herself to sleep while cuddling a bottle of wine every night?), develop policies and internal controls (which means there aren’t any so have fun cleaning up that mess on your first day), rendezvous with the external auditors, review payroll and AP/AR (“review” probably means “do”), create budgets and forcasts/projections, ensure the business is complying with tax regulations and filing requirements (again, this likely translates into filing them but at least then you’ll know it was done and properly), and conduct financial analysis with all the copious amount of free-time you have left.

Oh and you will be promoting a positive work culture for the accounting team. Good luck with that because Barbara in payroll reached and surpassed the end of her wit long ago. It will be your job to lecture her on the dangers of mixing benzos with that nightly bottle of pinot grigio. Daily. While she sobs like a Sim with a perpetually blood-red plumbob.

Salary: $30,000 to $48,000 a year. I’m not joking.

Benefits: “competitive salary and bonus structure.” They really wrote that.

I sincerely hope this is a typo.

The post Look, We Know Accounting Salaries Are Low But This Has to Be a Joke appeared first on Going Concern.

On Saturday, Financial Times reported that due to a “market slowdown,” EY UK has gotten rid of a small number of partners and given out annual salary increases of 2.2% to its 4,400-person tax advisory business. It was six percent in 2023 and 10 percent in 2022. FT said bonuses would be smaller as well (£500 for junior staff — that’s $655 USD — to £4,000 for directors) and explained the math thusly:

Bonuses for EY employees are calculated using a “variable performance share price” system where each employee has a specified number of “shares” according to their rank, people familiar with the matter said. The number of shares is multiplied by the value of one share — a figure set by management each year — to determine what bonuses are paid out.

High performers would, as always, receive more though no number was given. EY brazenly told FT that its tax practice “continues to grow” and said that raises and bonuses “vary based on individual and business unit performance.”

FT said tax advisory usually does OK during market turbulence, or at least shouldn’t be suffering as hard as deals and consulting in this market.

The firm gave the same spiel about difficult market conditions last year, saying that due to rising costs and a difficult economic outlook, just about everyone would get a smaller bonus as it cut the raise and bonus pool by about 30%. The firm wouldn’t tell FT what raises and bonuses were for other service lines this year, hopefully some birdies with big flapping mouths are in reporters’ inboxes right now spilling those specifics.

After peaking at 11.1% in October 2022, consumer price inflation in the UK was down to 2% in the 12 months to June 2024 with services inflation at 5.7%. Taylor Swift was partially blamed for the higher-than-expected 2% increase (we’re not joking). Core CPI was at 3.5% as of June, officially making these raises a pay cut assuming EY UKers use energy and pay rent.

EY UK partner pay took a hit last year, dipping from £803,000 ($1.1 million USD) in 2022 to £761,000 ($997k USD) for the year ended June 30, 2023.

We’ve seen similar disappointment here on our side of the pond with some EYers reporting NO raise or bonus this compensation season. Y’all, they want you to quit. How many times do we have to say this.

EY cuts pay rises and bonuses for UK tax staff after slower year [FT]

The post The King’s EY Gives Out Pay Cuts For Raises appeared first on Going Concern.

So in 2025, PwC is paying summer interns $30.75 – $40.75. The winter intern posts we found don’t have a pay range listed.

Here’s the YouTube video they linked if anyone would like to spend three minutes and 36 seconds getting elevator pitched on this internship.

On the topic of working in audit at PwC, we have a much better video coming up that we’re almost done editing. The original is a relic that will make you pine for Pizzarias and Surge.

The post This is What PwC is Paying Its Audit Interns in 2025 appeared first on Going Concern.

Immediately following this chart the report says:

If 2022 starting salaries were the primary determinant for business students choosing a major, accounting would be their last choice among this slate of options.

With the proliferation of salary information and ChatGPT at their fingertips, students and parents are savvy enough to understand and consider this as a factor. In a recent Journal of Accountancy interview with academic leaders, Professor Nancy Bagranoff of the University of Richmond said, “One change we have noticed is increased salary transparency. Students make use of online tools to compare salaries and are more aggressive in negotiating terms.” As these tools and pay transparency become more common, new recruits and experienced accountants are expecting higher salaries, and employers must respond.

Quote from National Pipeline Advisory Group’s Accounting Talent Strategy Report, page 59

The post Chart of the Day: Accounting Salaries Just Don’t Add Up appeared first on Going Concern.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

While one might feel compelled to handwave these posts as a skill issue specific to the people who posted them (that certainly could be the case), the FY25 EY compensation thread is enlightening to say the least. Some highlighted comments from the consulting side, where the majority are reporting single-digit salary increases:

• M1->M2 with a 2.4% salary increase, 0.88% bonus: “Balls in my throat”
• A2 (no promotion) with a 2.13% salary increase, $1000 (1.04%) bonus: “”
• M3->M4 with a 0% salary increase, 2.93% bonus: “Rethinking life choices”

On the assurance side, you have majority double-digit salary increases, plenty of promotions, and zero crying emojis.

This S3 in consulting with a 0% salary increase and a 0.74% bonus gets it: “They want us to quit.”

Craig here gets it too:

This is a back door to way to reducing headcount without firing people. If you aren't getting a raise and have met all production goals, then they are indirectly telling you "you're fired".

— Craig Hausz, CPA (@CPATaxTeam) August 5, 2024

Repeat after me: They want you to quit.

They want you to quit.

They want you to quit.

Headlines about mass layoffs are ugly and make clients skittish. Why do that when they can just discourage people right out the door? It seems pretty obvious that’s what’s happening here.

To be clear, they’re doing layoffs too. Guess that attrition is still way too low.

For fiscal 2023, EY US reported 12 percent revenue growth from FY22 for total revenue of $21.5 billion. No specifics yet on just how bad the year ending June 30, 2024 ended up being.

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Here they’ve compared compensation for equity and non-equity partners, managing partners, and professional staff at non-Big 4 IPA 100 firms for 2023 against 2019. These figures are the trim average meaning they’ve excluded the highest and lowest numbers from their data set to average the remaining 90%. When we exclude Big 4 from the IPA Top 100, we get the largest firm, RSM, with $3.7 billion in revenue to the smallest, Global Tax Management Inc. coming in at $48.8 million. Just to give you an idea of what size firms these numbers pertain to.

• Equity partners compensation was $839,687 last year. In 2019, it was $620,936.
• Non-equity partner compensation was $307,579. It was $275,318 in 2019.
• Professional staff compensation (excluding partners) was $104,370, versus $90,149 in 2019.
• MP compensation averaged $1,726,853, which is significantly higher than the $1,247,266 average in 2019.

Since 2020, staff pay has increased by 15.7 percent while partners have seen an increase of 29.2 percent. That’s IPA’s math, don’t come for us if it ain’t mathin’.

We eagerly await updated figures for 2024.

Update: Just going to leave this here. Thanks for doing the math, fren.

"Why isn't this generation buying houses?" https://t.co/96AbjX0KEs pic.twitter.com/bDKnbUALSR

— McRib Hard Seltzer (@kleib323) July 19, 2024

The post Just How Much Have Accounting Salaries Increased in the Last Five Years? appeared first on Going Concern.

In guidance sent to affected employees, reviewed by the FT, PwC said: “Should you decide to accept this voluntary offer, it is possible for you to send out a note to a defined group, however this must not refer to the voluntary severance offer or the circumstances of leaving (suggested wording for this note is given below but we recognise that you will naturally want to personalise this).”

“Naturally, it must also not be derogatory to PwC or its employees/partners. It is down to business discretion as to when this message can be sent out and if the business wishes to review messages before they are sent out.”

The guidance continues: “The content of your comms should follow this approach . . . ‘Following recent discussions with my [relationship leader], I have taken the decision to leave PwC. It hasn’t been an easy decision for me to reach but now that I have, I am excited about what the future holds for me and the new opportunities on the horizon. I have really enjoyed my time at PwC and the opportunity to work with such talented colleagues.’”

“PwC asks for silence from departing staff in programme of UK job cuts,” Financial Times, June 7 2024

Well guess the cat’s out of the bag about how bad things are at the King’s PwC because FT just published this:

PwC has warned its 26,000 UK staff that it will pay lower bonuses in some divisions, hand out smaller salary increases and curb a practice of half-day Fridays as the Big Four firm battles “challenging market conditions”.

Ian Elliott, chief people officer, wrote in a memo that “our bonus pool will be similar to last year” but “a number of areas” would see “reductions in average bonus per head”, while some would also see lower pay rises.

NOT HALF-DAY FRIDAYS. You absolute demons. Oh and about the bonus pool last year: Already Underpaid PwC UKers Get Told Bonuses Will Suck This Year

Apparently at least one senior partner thinks reduced summer hours are “disruptive to a client-facing business” and FT says some partners expected the firm’s new leadership — as in PwC UK Senior Partner Marco Amitrano and his new management board who were handed the keys on July 1 — to ditch this perk faster than you can say why are you showing as Away on Teams? “Given market conditions, it’s especially important that we carefully balance [summer working hours] with the needs of our clients, teams and work commitments, which should continue to take priority,” said Mr. Elliott in another memo, according to FT’s reporting. Have you guys figured out yet that they want you to quit? Seems patently obvious at this point.

When PwC UK announced financial results for fiscal ’23 last August, they said they had “strong, stable growth backed by investment in people and technology.” Of their 16% growth in fiscal 2023 (up from 12 percent in 2022) and revenue of £5.8 billion ($7.5 billion USD), then-PwC UK Senior Partner Kevin Ellis said “Considering the sizable investments we’ve made in our people and technology, partner profits beat our forecasts. Our strong performance is due to the adaptability of our business in supporting our clients and is a credit to the talent of our people.” A few months later, they asked 500-600 people to leave voluntarily or they’d be fired. Erm, let go.

Partner pay for 2022 broke records at £1 million, up quite a bit from £868,000 the prior year and a lot up from 2019’s payout of £765,000. Alas, poor PwC UK partners took home a paltry £906,000 ($1.2 million USD) in FY23.

Although the line continues to be “demand for consulting services is way down,” PwC UK consolidated group revenues, which includes PwC UK, Channel Islands and Middle East firms, for consulting alone hit 30 percent growth in FY23, down slightly from FY22’s 33 percent. “This was driven by demand in the Middle East, as clients invest in programs to modernize and diversify the region’s economy beyond oil. Energy diversification and sustainability are also behind many UK transformation projects, as the climate crisis and new reporting requirements galvanize businesses to move towards net zero,” said PwC. The next revenue announcement should appear in the next month or so, who wants to bet they’ve swapped out sustainability for generative AI? You know they will.

There’s a ton more in the FT article, go read it. At least inflation in the UK isn’t burning hot at 11 percent anymore or a 3 percent raise would really be a pay cut. Let’s be real, it still is for anyone who needs to eat food or rent a flat.

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According to a press release they put out yesterday, EY plans to invest a billion dollars over three years on talent and technology “to revolutionize the experience of early career accounting professionals and improve the attractiveness of the profession.” Let’s see what exactly they think that looks like:

This investment includes a significant increase in early career compensation, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled audit and tax platforms, an innovative new “360 Careers” experience, outreach and support for college students, and enhanced wellbeing benefits.

Call us skeptical but this sounds like a lot of non-compensation stuff that could eat up a healthy chunk of that billion bucks. They did say the salary bump will put accounting “on par with other business majors” though:

EY US will increase early career compensation as part of a total rewards package that recognizes the value of a certified public accountant (CPA) career path. This investment will place the profession and accounting degree on par with other business majors and position EY US as a pay leader in an increasingly competitive US market.

No salary number was given so we’ll just have to keep an eye on the next few compensation seasons to find out just how much more they’re paying.

Added the firm:

EY US will continue to be a beacon for top talent, supporting professionals as they pursue a degree in Accounting and as they progress in their career, through:

• Pathways to CPA licensure, including the EY Career Path Accelerator, to remove barriers to entry and create a growing pool of future CPAs
• New EY 360 Careers experience for early career professionals starting in 2025, which will serve as a launch pad and accelerator to give campus recruits the essential skills they need to grow as leaders at the global EY organization, forge their paths as entrepreneurs or advance to prominent C-suite positions later in their careers
• Wellbeing enhancements to help professionals perform at their best, including dedicated coaching and wellbeing assistance for audit and tax teams during periods of peak performance

If you didn’t know, EY Career Path Accelerator is “an accessible, affordable, and relevant alternative for students to meet the 150 hours of education required for CPA licensure” meant for people who aren’t on the Master’s track. This is what’s currently on offer:

Says EY about the program, the Career Path Accelerator “offers hands-on learning through our EY internship, ensures participants receive the guidance they need to be successful, and equips students with the future-focused skills and subject-matter experience that they’ll need upon entering the workforce.” The program is administered by Hult International Business School.

Let’s wrap this up with the expected quote:

“Investors and global capital markets depend on a thriving accounting profession,” said Ginnie Carlier, EY Americas Vice Chair – Talent. “Our goal is to make EY US the most preferred place to launch an audit or tax career and become a springboard for future business leaders – for our own organization and leading public and private enterprises.”

EY US to invest $1 billion in compensation and technology to improve the attractiveness of the accounting profession [PR Newswire]

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Seeing postings from other local CPA firms paying their employees $15-20 an hour for an accountant. Crazy.

— TailorCPA (@tailor_hartman) June 6, 2024

The tweeter, who is not the jackass, lives in Madison, WI (GO BADGERS!). Here is a handy living wage chart for that area.

You’d be better off pushing carts at Target.

The post Weekend Discussion: You, Sir or Ma’am, Are a Jackass appeared first on Going Concern.

Their research polled two distinct groups of professionals — entry- and mid-level CPAs nationwide who have left their firm or the profession within the last five years (“Career Changers”) and Pennsylvania CPAs with 3-10 years of experience who are still on the grind (“Current Talent”). The goal? To find out what made the first group dip out and what keeps the second group not only at their current firm but in the wider profession.

“The findings from our latest report emphasize the complexity of talent retention and the necessity for firms to adopt innovative strategies that address both individual and organizational needs,” says Jennifer Cryder, CPA, MBA, CEO of PICPA. “We want to make sure that the ‘Current Talent’ group does not become ‘Career Changers’. This report aims to guide accounting firm leaders towards effective strategies that we believe, when properly implemented, will enhance both retention and firm performance.”

You’ll recall it isn’t only the scary “75% of current CPAs will retire by 2035” AICPA figure nor plummeting accounting enrollments and low CPA exam numbers that the profession is worried about but also a significant number of experienced professionals leaving accounting completely. See: Job Security Isn’t Enough to Keep Many Accountants From Quitting from Wall Street Journal (published Sept. 22, 2023). So making current professionals “stickier” should be as high a priority as recruiting young people into the profession at the high school and college level. So far it’s the pipeline that’s getting most of the attention.

Notable findings from the 323 professionals in the Career Changers group who have 0-15 years of public accounting experience and have left their firm or profession within the past five years:

• When asked to complete this statement “My desire to stay at my previous firm or in the accounting field would have increased if…” the leading response was higher salaries (39.7%).
• Other top responses were: “there were more flexible work options” (35.6%), “entry- and mid-level employees were more valued” (33.5%) and “there were better benefits offered” (30.4%).
• When provided the same statement but specific to work-life balance, the leading response was: “there were more flexible work options around hours and location” (35.6%).

We’re giggling at the inclusion of people with 0 years of experience. Washouts!

And key findings from the 449 Pennsylvania CPAs with 3-10 years of experience in the Current Talent group:

• The majority of respondents (56.7%) stated they have a higher desire to stay in public accounting, with 73% stating they would like to stay with their current firm.
• Career development is a critical factor for retention with 85% of respondents saying their firm actively supports their career development, and 78% saying their firm offers interesting career opportunities.
• Still, the number one response to the question “What would increase your desire to stay at your firm in the accounting field?” was “there were higher salaries” (46.9%), followed by “my working hours were capped” (42.3%) and “there were better benefits offered” (37.4%).

PIPCA’s suggestion is not to pay everyone more. Rather:

With over 70% of CPAs nearing retirement and a notable decrease in accounting graduates and CPA exam takers, the need for firms to fundamentally move away from the traditional “pyramid” model to a more robust “pentagon” model, better leveraging automation, AI, and outsourcing is critical to long-term success. [emphasis ours] This shift reduces reliance on a broad base of entry-level talent, allowing firms to focus on hiring fewer, but better retained staff while fortifying the middle managers with higher compensation and more diverse career opportunities. The PICPA believes this approach not only can help meet client needs effectively but also aligns with salary expectations and improves work-life balance, ensuring high-quality work without compromise.

Petition to use a five-pointed star model instead of a pentagon.

Reading between the lines, or rather the words in the above paragraph as it’s all plainly laid out, they’re suggesting firms move away from the cattle calls of young, disloyal talent that will leave within two years and pivot instead to automation, technology, and compartmentalized outsourced talent to replace them along with “fortifying the middle managers” who’ve been loyal thus far with better pay and career opportunities.

Are we finally living in the disruptive future we were promised?

The post CPAs Would Probably Stick Around If Firms Paid Them More, Let’s Just Outsource Instead appeared first on Going Concern.

For accountants under some categories — Chartered and certified accountants Accountant (qualified), Auditor (qualified), Chartered accountant, Company accountant, Cost accountant (qualified), Financial controller (qualified accountant), and Management accountant (qualified) — the standard going rate is now £46,800 ($58k) or £24.00 ($30) per hour. Here’s a good read from a UK immigration lawyer on all the specifics.

After net migration to the UK hit a record 745,000 in 2022, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his displeasure and a desire to get those numbers down.

But that’s another issue. For people under 26, the minimum they must earn to qualify for a visa is £30,960 ($38k-ish). Apparently this was too much for KPMG so they’ve yanked job offers from some foreign grads who were expecting to start their careers at the House of Klynveld.

Reports FT:

KPMG has revoked job offers to some foreign graduates in the UK after the government tightened visa rules for overseas workers in an effort to cut record immigration.

The Big Four firm, one of the UK’s biggest graduate employers, told affected incoming staff this week that their offers had been rescinded, pinning the move on the government’s decision to raise the minimum salary required to sponsor a skilled worker visa in the UK, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.

KPMG said the changes to eligibility criteria had “unfortunately impacted some of our graduate programmes that were previously eligible for sponsorship under the skilled worker visa category”, according to the documents. The firm declined to comment on how many offers had been revoked.

FT said the average graduate makes between £25,000 and £35,000 at Big 4 firms in the UK.

KPMG has stopped hiring overseas graduates who need skilled worker visas outside of London as a result of the changes to the eligibility rules, said FT. Except for junior actuaries, they’re still in.

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Under the “Remuneration” section, the two sections below cover salary satisfaction. The first, how satisfied professionals are with their salaries broken down by type of employer. Those working in government and academia are least satisfied, that is to say a larger proportion of them disagreed with the statement “I am satisfied with the level of pay I receive for the role I perform.” The self-employed and those in the large corporate sector, or what we colloquially call industry, are most satisfied with 41 percent of each group agreeing with the satisfaction statement. Still, the self-employed are the only group where less than half of them reported being unsatisfied with their salaries.

See below:

Another bunch of data conveniently charted out in image form by the ACCA (thank you) provides a breakdown to the above question (if you forgot already it’s “I am satisfied with the level of pay I receive for the role I perform”) by generation. We aren’t surprised the under 43-and-under group are less satisfied than Gen X and Boomers, we are however surprised that Millennials are less satisfied than Gen Z. Maybe because employers bumped salaries slightly when the great accountant shortage panic began and that aligns with a lot of them graduating into the workforce? Feel free to espouse your own theories on that in the comments.

According to the survey, work-life balance is a bigger concern than pay though the two issues are intrinsically tangled up in each other (as the shortage worsens, workloads for those left behind get even heavier).

You know what, let’s throw this one in here too. On the topics of attraction and retention, it appears dissatisfaction with pay is a bigger problem for retention than attraction across all generations.

Check out those Big 4 respondents on the topic of retention:

There’s more worth diving into in the Attract, Engage, Retain report, this’ll do for now.

The post Survey Says: Which Group of Auditors Are Most Satisfied With Their Salaries? appeared first on Going Concern.

Let’s check out what Bberg said before I inject too many unrelated metaphors into this:

Mistakes continued to pile up this earnings season in the wake of Lyft Inc.’s market-roiling typo: Planet Fitness Inc., Mister Car Wash Inc. and Rivian Automotive Inc. all had to correct their quarterly earnings statements. These types of errors shake investor confidence and in extreme cases can result in heavy fines from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

While it’s unclear what exactly led to the mistakes in each of these cases, one major risk factor has reached crisis levels: a shortage of certified public accountants.

Seasoned practitioners are retiring while the profession isn’t drawing the next generation of workers entering the labor market. The lack of help means current accountants’ hours and workloads can be grueling, upping the odds of mistakes and burnout.

Hints of a potential problem began to emerge in 2014-ish though up until the past few years it was only us screaming into the void about a talent shortage while accounting enrollments declined further every year. Then Wall Street Journal took notice and, well, the accounting news market has been saturated with SHORTAGE! articles since. And every time one of those is posted to r/accounting, a cacophony of voices cry, “There’s not a shortage problem. IT’S A SALARY PROBLEM.” (Side note mostly to self: Don’t write blatantly sarcastic headlines about this matter as all of r/accounting except for the one person who read the article will call you a moron and jerk)

It’s refreshing that the Bloomberg article addresses the salary issue rather than asking as if the answer isn’t already known “where have all the accountants gone??” Author Jo Constantz deserves a for that. She could have given it a sentence or two, worse she could have hand-wrung about it like the AICPA does when they come up with dozens of reasons other than low starting salaries for why the accounting profession isn’t as attractive as it once was in their regular brainstorming meetings. Instead she not only thoroughly acknowledged it, she threw some actual numbers in there, too.

For many 22- to 27-year-olds, known as Generation Z, their average student debt of more than $20,000 and the lure of higher-paying Wall Street and Silicon Valley firms means the time and effort required to become a CPA doesn’t pencil out.

Last year, the median salary for full-time entry-level accounting jobs was roughly $62,500, up from about $50,000 in 2020, according to Handshake data. The median pay advertised for entry-level management consulting and financial analyst roles, by contrast, was $70,000 and $75,000, respectively. For software engineers, the median entry-level pay was $93,000.

To attract people to accounting, the profession must “own up” to stagnant wages, Paul Munter, chief accountant to the SEC, told an American Institute of CPAs conference in December.

Note: The esteemed Paul Munter graduated from Leeds School of Business in 1978. Here are some figures from a 1982 Bureau of Labor Statistics report entitled Occupational salary levels for white-collar workers (1982 is basically 1978 right):

LOL:

$17,266 for a public accountant starting out in 1982 = $55,524 today. While demand for accountants has increased significantly since, as has the regulatory and compliance burden AND the base level knowledge expected of even the dumbest accountants, salaries have stayed…meh. It is literally not worth it for many students. Gen Z is smarter than we geezers give them credit for.

Back to the topic at hand. While we aren’t sure a shortage is to blame for all these restatements, we do know material weakness disclosures due to lack of accounting staff started appearing in SEC filings last year and there is a municipal crisis brewing as cities lose their credit ratings due to late filings and audits, too. The dominoes are falling. Too bad no one did something about it back when there was still time to turn it around.

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First of all, LOL:

The story:

Payouts for UK partners at KPMG climbed 4 per cent to an average of £746,000 (approx. $949k USD) last year despite a surge in fines for audit failures and a slowdown in growth at the Big Four firm.

The accounting and consulting firm reported a 9 per cent jump in revenues to £2.96bn during the year to September, compared with growth of 16 per cent in the previous 12 months.

Pre-tax profits fell nearly a fifth to £364mn, with the firm blaming higher staff costs. However, a cull in the firm’s senior ranks, which left the partnership at its lowest level in more than two decades, meant that average individual payouts rose.

Partner pay last year averaged out to £717,000 (approximately $912k USD) per. Compare that to the £906,000 ($1.2 million USD) at PwC and Deloitte partners taking home more than £1 million for the third year in a row.

According to KPMG UK’s most recent people report, the firm has 833 partners as of October 2023, up from 786 the year prior. Total people and partners (separated in the report because partners aren’t people) are at 18,126 individuals, up from 16,822 in 2022.

FT said in October the equity partnership is at new lows, falling twelve percent from 571 to 502 after 94 partners left the firm and just 25 new ones were brought in. The “salaried partner” role was introduced in 2021, touted by the firm as a way to offer “the firm’s future leaders additional routes into the partnership.” The route they should be taking is straight through the front door and over to a different firm, what a stupid consolation prize. But that’s why the numbers don’t match up, the firm is counting Diet Partners in its overall partner total.

KPMG UK partner pay climbs despite slowdown [Financial Times]

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The most sought-after remote job companies are hiring for isn’t in tech, as you might expect. Accountant is the hottest work-from-home job on the market right now.

There are no doubt plenty of tech people looking for a job. We’re not even two weeks into a new year and 48 tech companies — including Discord, Instagram, Google, and Trend Micro — have laid off 7,528 people (source: Layoffs.fyi). If that pace continues, the sector stands to lose 195,728 jobs this year, which would be an improvement from last year’s 262,582 (compare this to the <8000 people laid off from Big 4 and mid-tier accounting firms in 2023).

Back to CNBC:

Accountants claimed the top spot in FlexJobs’ annual ranking of the top remote jobs in the U.S., thanks to increasing demand for these skilled professionals across several industries, including finance, health care and government.

Alright, we need to define “top.” The ranking they’re talking about is “Top 100 Companies to Watch for Remote Jobs in 2024” and “accountant” tops the list under the heading “Most Popular and Searched-For Remote Job Titles.” So more people are searching for remote accounting jobs than “product manager” or “customer service representative” (on their platform, I assume). What that tells me is that accounting professionals have a wandering eye, certainly nothing novel there. And with many firms pulling back on remote work this past year, it’s no wonder people are looking for remote accounting jobs.

The full list from FlexJobs:

The below list includes the top 10 remote job postings to be looking for from companies:

1. Accountant
2. Executive Assistant
3. Financial Analyst
4. Product Manager
5. Customer Service Representative
6. Software Engineer
7. Customer Success Manager
8. Accounting Manager
9. Product Designer
10. Writer

“Remote job postings to be looking for from companies”? In another list below that (which notably does not have accountant at #1), it says “the above list is attributed to the most popular jobs posted by companies.” Did I accidentally make decaf this morning or does this not mean what the CNBC headline implied it means? For all we know tech people are carpet-bombing accounting jobs looking for any work they can get.

Of the 100 companies that posted the highest number of remote jobs in 2023 in this same list or ranking or whatever we’re calling it, not a one is a major accounting firm. Or a minor one. Maybe we should move on.

CNBC says:

While the average mean salary for accountants in the U.S. is about $68,000, according to ZipRecruiter data, more experienced accountants stand to earn anywhere from $150,000 to upwards of $200,000 a year.

Although Bloomberg reports that the Big Four accounting firms — KPMG, PWC, EY and Deloitte — collectively shed thousands of jobs in 2023, such layoffs are rare, Pollak says.

“As an accountant, you are a highly valued employee, so the risk of getting laid off is pretty low,” she notes. “You’re a trusted member of the inner circle, you see all of the dirt and get the company out of trouble — it’s a very important, stable job.”

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Financial Times reported on the Friday after Thanksgiving — just another day to the Bri’ish, thank goodness — that the pay freeze at KPMG UK initially in effect only for its suffering deals business is now extending to 12,000 staff across service lines. Said FT:

Bosses at the Big Four accountancy firm told staff across its four divisions in recent weeks that they would not receive a pay rise this year unless they were promoted, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bonuses will also be cut, with staff in KPMG’s 2,900-strong tax and legal arm receiving 55 per cent of the full amount that could have been paid, an insider said.

The pay freeze will not affect the firm’s graduate and apprenticeship staff, according to the people familiar with the situation.

Over the past few years the UK has seen brutal inflation though it’s currently on its way down from a peak of 11.1 percent in October of last year.

See? Not so bad.

So sure, they’re getting what’s essentially a 5% pay cut but it could be so much worse. October 2023’s inflation of 4.6 percent is the lowest it’s been since October two years before and the Bank of England expects inflation to continue to fall in 2024.

In 2022, KPMG UK CEO Jon Holt hopped on LinkedIn to announce a salary increase of between £2,000 and £4,000 (approx. $2,500 to 5,000 USD) for staff writing:

It’s progressive and we’ve deliberately designed this so that our more junior colleagues feel the greatest benefit now. This is separate to our annual pay review later in the year and doesn’t include our partners or associate partners.

In total it’s an additional £51.7m ($65.7 million USD) investment in our people. Based on current trading performance, we’re also expecting to match our £100m colleague bonus pot from last year.

Things started to take a turn after that however, for example everyone in audit finding out in the spring there would be no mid-year promotions. A spokeswoman told the Times in March that “promotions typically follow an annual cycle and so in most years mid-year ones would be by exception only” and that the firm continues “to significantly invest in the development of our talent and many of our colleagues will be promoted as part of our annual promotions cycle later this year.”

And it isn’t only staff who are hurting. The firm is at its lowest equity partner level in two decades — 467 partners paid an average of £757,000 last year — bringing it to about half the size of the partnership at PwC. The firm also has 359 salaried partners, they don’t really count because Diet Partners don’t get a share of the year’s take.

Things are getting a little dark on the other side of the Atlantic, let’s hope it doesn’t make its way over here like Sir Walter Raleigh’s crew ready to conquer America.

KPMG extends pay freeze to 12,000 UK staff [Financial Times]

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Here’s what the AICPA has found on their quest to pinpoint reasons for the pipeline problem, in Sue’s words:

[T]here’s also a lot of data that we’ve been kind of parsing through to determine other root causes of the talent challenges we’re having. And we’re finding that there are leakage points in a couple of key areas that are kind of driving our focus as part of this initiative. One is in the college to graduation group and about 208,000 on any given year declare an accounting major, but then by the time they graduate, only 50,000 are graduating in accounting. So there’s something going on in that declaration of a major to graduation and university.

AICPA’s Sue Coffey speaking on the Accounting Today podcast episode “A pipeline progress report“

In other words, something’s happening junior/senior year to pivot a lot of willing victims eager students away from accounting and into something else. Something other than Intermediate alone, probably.

Brushing past that, they somehow figured out that people who no more than five years in public accounting are poisoning the well and tales of their negative experiences are echoing down as far as high schools. For every pair of cool accounting professors giving talks at the local high school, you’ve got however many hundreds of comments online contradicting everything the profession’s cheerleaders are saying out on their roadshows.

Another area we’re finding relates to retention and how retention in firms is impacting the beginning of the funnel and the desire for people to come into our profession. And so that one to five year group of professionals that are within a firm and tend to leave within that period and may not have a good experience are impacting what, for example, high school and college students think about our profession and that’s creating pipeline challenges.

This was CSU Monterey Bay professor Shaowen “Sharon” Hua speaking to students at North Salinas High School about why accounting is a pretty good career earlier this year:

“Accounting jobs pay well,” she told them. “Accounting jobs are fun.”

“I have a [former] student who works for Driscoll,” Hua said of the Watsonville-based berry grower. “She travels to England, Singapore and Japan because Driscoll has businesses all over the world.”

“You might work with clients from Pebble Beach, the NBA and Hollywood,” she said. “They have so much money, they don’t know where to put it and you get to service them.”

And this is the other side of the coin, one of the first posts one is greeted by when visiting r/accounting today.

When did you realize that it was time to get out of public accounting?
byu/stanerd inAccounting

The other thing I feel compelled to point out from Sue’s appearance is this. SALARY is a naughty word.

We’ve been talking about the S issue for many, many months now, right? Starting salaries are not where they need to be in our profession, and those young adults and young professionals see more opportunity elsewhere for higher pay.

The S word. I mean, it is obscene how little they pay early-career public accountants, maybe we should have been censoring the S word all along.

The post It’s Official, All the Complaining Is Directly Contributing to the Pipeline Problem appeared first on Going Concern.

Of the finance and accounting sector the report says:

In a field known for ‘churn and burn,’ last year was one for the record books with higher job turnover than in any other three-year period. Those now settled into new jobs are not in a hurry to leave. A turbulent economy plus healthy compensation packages over the past few years have decreased the pool of candidates and increased the competition for talent.

As employers continue to face a tight job market, they will need to take a closer look at their compensation packages and be prepared for counter offers. Beyond salary levels, evaluate what creative work/life balance and benefits may entice candidates from paid paternity leave to on-site daycare or more flexible vacation packages.

And:

Despite a complex economy that requires more guidance from financial and accounting professionals, there’s a serious talent shortage that’s going to worsen in the next few years. While 75% of CPA’s reached retirement age in 2020, the good news is that finance and accounting are now ranking as top career choices among Gen Z candidates.

Say what now? Whatever, moving on…

Recruiting for these positions goes beyond attractive compensation packages to revisiting upskilling of in-house teams as well as more focus on under qualified candidates who have potential but require training and certifications. Employers will need to reward employees who earn CPAs, CFAs, and CFPs or risk losing them to competitors. Many companies also expect to increase outsourcing to fill the gaps.

Now that you bravely skimmed four entire paragraphs of icky words, here are national average salaries for various accounting positions according to the report.

There are a few more operational and lower level roles in the report such as Bookkeeper ($51,989) and Data Entry Specialist ($41,020), let’s go ahead and skip those.

The report also offers a comparison of accounting function roles and average salaries in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte. The most lucrative of these is being a CFO in Boston ($302,309 versus national average of $261,739). The worst is being a data entry specialist…anywhere. To keep things simple, we’ll stick to the tax and audit roles.

Thoughts, feelings, complaints, and accusations of inaccuracy are welcome in the comments.

The post Here Are Even More 2024 Accounting Salary Projections appeared first on Going Concern.

2News:

“I think that our profession really has abused those at the entry level and discouraged them from coming into the profession,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for an accounting firm to require their lower-level staff, up to four or five years and even after that, to work 80 or 90-hour weeks.”

That’s something, he says, newer generations of workers aren’t going to do. Even college enrollment in the field is down.

“I know at [University of Nevada, Reno] they have an online master’s program and it’s only got 47 people in it; they want to add people to it,” Bailey said.

Bailey also mentions an issue we wrote about last summer: firms in higher cost of living markets are hiring people living in lower COL cities to work remotely, paying those people HCOL salaries.

“I’ll interview someone and then, unfortunately, someone from San Francisco will hire them remotely and pay them based on the San Francisco wage scale, which we can’t match,” he said to KTVN. We know of at least one mid-tier firm headquartered in the Midwest that had this very problem, there are no doubt many more we haven’t gotten the scoop on.

To put this specific issue into perspective, here are salary ranges for a handful of public accounting positions in Reno and San Francisco according to the 2024 Robert Half Salary Guide. 25th percentile is the low end, 75th is the high, we’ve skipped Bob’s 50th percentile figures because who cares (about any of this, really). Reno is 4% higher than national average, San Francisco 35%. The figures below do not include bonuses, benefits or perks and are obviously averages.

Versus:

So a tax associate in Reno offered the high end of salary to work remotely for a San Francisco firm could theoretically make $23k more money for the same work, a manager is looking at closer to a $60k bump. In an increasingly expensive world, why wouldn’t an accountant choose the more lucrative option?

Mark goes on to say that his firm has done the smart thing and limited the work they do take on, allow their staff to work remotely, and try to avoid overtime “because when you do work overtime, it kind of impairs the other aspects of your life.” Kind of.

Full segment:

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Ahead of the global revenue announcement, EY UK informed staff not to expect much in the way of bonuses and raises this year, we just had to wait to see if the same austerity measures would be extended to partners come payout time. Surprisingly, they were.

Reported Bloomberg yesterday:

Ernst & Young LLP partners in the UK saw their share of profits drop for the first time in three years as the Big Four audit firms face economic uncertainty.

Partners at the accounting firm’s UK arm pocketed an average of £761,000 ($923,000) last year, compared with £803,000 the year before. The firm also cut its pay rise and bonus pool by about 30% to £155 million.

Not quite the $1.7 million to $3.6 million for audit partners and $5.95 million to $8.1 million for consulting partners they were expecting when Everest was in play this time last year.

Going by the press release EY UK put out this morning they didn’t have a bad year, reporting record revenues of £3.8 billion ($4.6 billion):

EY has achieved a second year of double-digit revenue growth, with UK revenues up 16% and fee income increasing to a record £3.76bn from £3.23bn the previous year. This market leading performance has been underpinned by long term investments in people, audit quality and technology. Distributable profits before tax increased 4% to £659m.

EY achieved strong growth across all of its service lines in the UK. Tax revenues grew by 20%, Consulting 18%, Assurance 17% and Strategy and Transactions by 8%. EY has also seen strong demand across its industry sectors with stand-out performances from Energy (28% UK revenue growth), Government & Infrastructure (26%), Technology, Media & Telecoms (15%) and Financial Services (12%).

Compare this to global service line growth for the year ended June 2023:

• Assurance: $15.1 billion, 11% growth
• Consulting: $16.1 billion, 21.6% growth
• Strategy and Transactions: $6.1 billion, 8.4% growth
• Tax: $12.1 billion, 12.2% growth

Was it economic uncertainty that hurt EY UK partners’ pockets this year or was it Everest? When the split’s biggest cheerleaders conceded the loss in April, WSJ wrote about leadership going out of their way to assure partners their payouts would be protected best they could:

Global leaders of the company sought to reassure partners that they are working to cushion the financial impact from the abandoned project. That cost mostly fell on EY’s U.S. and U.K. partnerships, which did the lion’s share of the work on the breakup.

Executives at EY’s global unit said on an internal call that they plan to use a combination of bank borrowing and accounting maneuvers to ensure that the dead-deal costs have “minimal” impact on partner earnings.

£42,000 when you make almost a million does in fact seem pretty minimal. Still, it’s got to hurt. Our thoughts and prayers to them during this difficult time.

The post Break Out the Violin for the Poor EY UK Partners Taking a Pay Cut This Year appeared first on Going Concern.

Yavinka Mendis, a University of Manchester economics graduate, joined KPMG’s Manchester office as an audit associate in 2019. He worked there for just over a year, auditing investment banks among other things, before leaving and spending four months working for Domino’s Pizza while looking for other roles. Mendis eventually found one at Grant Thornton, where he spent nine months as an audit associate in the public sector assurance at the Manchester office before leaving to work in Spain.

Mendis says he left Grant Thornton because he was burnt out. A letter he received from the firm nearly 12 months after he left, published to his LinkedIn account, helps explain why: after looking back through its timesheet data and considering his Mendi’s ‘flexible benefit choices,’ Grant Thornton said it had realised that he’d earned less than the minimum wage for the time he’d spent there. It sent him £100 [$121.12] for the inconvenience and promised to make up the difference.

Mendis says he wasn’t aggrieved at his underpayment, and instead complimented Grant Thornton for its honesty. He didn’t respond to a request to comment for this article.

Although Mendis didn’t want to speak to eFinancialCareers, GT did and said they discovered that “a small number of our people were inadvertently paid under the National Minimum Wage threshold, owing to them having made significant salary sacrifice deductions via our flexible benefit choices and/or having worked longer hours during specific periods of the year” after an internal review. However:

[The firm] added that no one there actually receives a salary below the minimum wage threshold.

Indeed says the average salary for a Grant Thornton audit associate in the UK is £32,059, Payscale puts it in a range of £17k – £30k or an average of £23,031. While the National Minimum Wage is currently £10.42 ($12.64) an hour, assuming he spent a year at KPMG he would have started at GT in 2020 or 2021 at the latest, at which time minimum wage in the UK was up to £8.91 ($10.79).

Accounting firm apologises for paying trainee below minimum wage [eFinancialCareers]

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The Australians are having the same staffing problems we are and the chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said in the most libertarian way possible it’s because of all the regulation. While that may be a factor, and certainly one contributing to why audit partner is not the attractive career path it once was, one senator called bullshit on his claim.

AFR:

Auditing firms are struggling to attract people into the profession because the role is demanding and the work unpleasant, the head of the corporate regulator says.

ASIC chairman Joe Longo told a parliamentary inquiry into the regulator on Friday that the auditing profession also had “long-term staffing challenges”, partly because being an auditor was a “high-risk” occupation because of heavy regulation of the sector.

However, Labor committee chairman Deborah O’Neill said the key reason firms had a staffing problem was the low pay of junior auditors compared with the oversized pay packets of partners at the large auditing firms.

AFR goes on to share the actual quotes:

“The audit professionals globally and nationally, [it’s] a challenge for them to attract people into that profession,” he told the joint committee. “It’s a very demanding role. It’s heavily regulated. It’s high risk. So I think that’s an issue that I know that big firms are thinking about; how they’re going to address moving people around the network, giving them exposure, making it a more attractive role.”

Senator O’Neill responded: “Or they could pay their junior staff a bit better, Mr Longo.”

Let’s find out what Aussie grads make in audit these days:

Graduate salaries at the Big 4 can vary depending on the service line you work in and the job you’re doing. In a broad sense, you could expect to be earning anywhere between $45,000 and $75,000, but this can even be different from city to city.

If you’re working in specialised departments like economics, digital services, financial advisory and consulting you’ll often have a starting salary between $60,000 and $70,000, and this is the higher end of the pay scale for graduates at the Big 4. At the lower end, graduates working in audit and assurance departments have reported salaries between $45,000 and $60,000. Most of these packages include superannuation.

$45,000 AUD = $28,560 USD.

On the topic of regulators and auditor pay, Financial Reporting Council chair Jan du Plessis responded directly to a similar complaint from UK Big 4 firms last summer with his own burn. FT:

Senior partners at the Big Four — Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC — have claimed that criticism from politicians and regulators, including high-profile fines for poor work, is making it more difficult to recruit and retain auditors.

But Sir Jan du Plessis, chair of the Financial Reporting Council, hit back, denying that the watchdog’s tough approach had made the profession unappealing.

Asked whether increasing pay was a solution to attracting people to work as auditors, du Plessis told the Financial Times: “Blunt answer: yes . . . There has been a significant increase in profitability at all the audit firms. They have the resources available to increase the pay levels of more junior people that they want to attract into their firms and it’s up to them whether they want to do so.”

Audit may be thankless work but the firms might be surprised what people are willing to endure if paid well enough to do it.

Unpleasant work or low pay? What’s behind the auditor shortage [Australian Financial Review]

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Where’s EY on hybrid work these days? HR Brew:

Embracing “predictable flexibility.” Currently, EY expects most people to spend between 40% and 60% of their time working “together in person,” and the rest remotely, according to Giampietro.

In July 2022 Giampietro spoke to another HR rag we don’t read about how the firm was herding its people back under the fluorescent lights. At that point in time the firm said an employee survey showed a lot of people wanted to be in the office part-time (X) however the actual number of people showing up in the office didn’t reflect that.

HR Executive wrote:

Earlier this year, the firm instituted what it called the “EY way of working transition fund” that covered all commuting costs, all dependent care costs and all pet care costs for its U.S. workers so that those barriers would be removed for office visits. All of its 55,000-plus U.S. employees were able to ask for reimbursements on those costs an unlimited amount of times.

And here’s where we’re at today:

Last year, Giampietro and his team sought to understand “what else was holding people back from coming together,” besides upticks in Covid-19. They picked up on financial concerns related to commutes, as well as dependent and pet care, and decided to offer employees an $800-a-year “way of working” fund to alleviate some of these costs.

EY rolled out the fund in February 2022, and has since seen a 150% year over year uptick in time spent together in the office, Giampietro said. Due to the success of the stipend, EY will offer it annually going forward. The idea, he added, is to “ease the burden for you to kind of get back into new habits of coming together again.”

Reminder that the average cost per in-office day is $71 (assuming pet care is part of your costs) which means an $800/year stipend would cover approximately eleven days in office. Hybrid workers spend a more modest $36 per day, that breaks down to 22 days. Technically 22.22 so 22¼ days. The average American commuter spends $8,466 and about 19% of their annual income on their commute every year, if you live in Detroit, Atlanta, NYC, SoCal, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, or Washington, DC your average commute cost per year is closer to $10,000.

Back on topic. As with anything else Big 4, the in-office expectations are heavily dependent on your team. HR Brew says “certain parts of the business spend over 80% of their time in a hybrid environment” which could mean 80% in the office or 80% remote, who knows. Other teams are hybrid closer to half, they said.

EYers are welcome to chime in with their own anecdotal data.

The post EY Expects Its People to Build a Better Working World Together In Person Up to 60% of the Time appeared first on Going Concern.

The 2023 Transparency Report talks quite a bit about governance, ethics, audit quality, leadership, blah blah.

You’re welcome to check it out should any of these appeal to you, just know each section is littered with Deloitte’s trademark self-fellating language. We’re here for page 14 (16 in the PDF) and the part FT highlighted in their article this morning. This:

Since 2021, employee comp and benefits as a percentage of revenue climbed from 52.4 percent to 55.4 percent, the highest it’s been since the firm started sharing the number a few years back. Deloitte US revenue climbed during that period as well — $22.9 billion for 2021, $27.9 billion for 2022, and $32.7 billion for 2023 (source) — so that means employee compensation as a percentage of revenue was $12 billion in 2021, $15.3 billion in 2022, and $18.1 billion in 2023 (numbers are sloppily rounded, accountants are encouraged to check my math). Going a little further back, comp and benefits as a percentage of revenue was 46.2 percent in 2015, 47.9 percent in 2016, 49.1 percent in both 2017 and 2018, and 49.2 percent in 2019. It wasn’t until 2020 the firm hit more than half its revenue (51.2 percent) on employee comp and benefits. According to the non-GAAP financial information they’ve shared, that is.

As for the rest of the report, there’s a bit of lip service paid to attraction and retention, professional development, and performance management. None of it is particularly intriguing though. Again, you can read it yourself to make your own determination.

The post Here’s How Much Deloitte Spends on Compensation As a Percentage of the Firm’s Revenue appeared first on Going Concern.

From “Why No One’s Going Into Accounting” published today by Wall Street Journal. There’s your answer.

The post Fun Chart of the Day: Well F*ck Accountants Then I Guess appeared first on Going Concern.

Staffing authority Robert Half has released its much-anticipated 2024 Salary Guide and just like years past, the guide is packed with intel not only on finance and accounting but the greater job market that we really don’t care about. We’ll be deconstructing various aspects of the guide over the next few weeks, for now we’re taking a look at basic public accounting salaries and service lines.

If this is your first time checking out this industry-leading salary guide, Bob puts salaries into three buckets based on title holder’s usefulness:

• 25th percentile: New to the role, with little or no experience; requires more than casual instruction or supervision to perform day-to-day duties
• 50th percentile: Has the experience to consistently perform core responsibilities without direct supervision; very comfortable with processes and subject matter associated with the role
• 75th percentile: Value to the organization goes far beyond the ability to perform normal job duties; has rare qualifications that enable consistent contribution in unique ways; ready for next career level when available

Salaries below are starting salaries only, meaning this is what you would expect to make if you’re new, and include compensation only, not bonuses or benefits.

With that in mind, here are eight public accounting positions and their starting salaries for 2024:

Let’s compare the 2024 public accounting salary numbers to the same positions from Robert Half’s 2023 Salary Guide:

In the interest of keeping things simple, we’ll compare public accounting salaries at the 50th percentile level for the two major service lines (2023 -> 2024), you’re welcome to do your own math on the rest. Percentage change is in parentheses and rounded to two decimal places.

Tax services

Senior Manager/Director Tax Services: $146,250 -> $159,500 (+9.06%)
Manager of Tax Services: $112,750 -> $112,750 (no change)
Senior Tax Associate: $78,500 -> $83,250 (+6.05%)
Tax Associate: $63,000 -> $64,750 (+2.78%)

Audit and Assurance services

Senior Manager/Managing Director, Audit/Assurance Services: $144,500 -> $150,250 (+3.98%)
Manager, Audit/Assurance Services: $100,000 -> $106,250 (+6.25%)
Senior Associate, Audit/Assurance Services: $72,000 -> $72,750 (+1.04%)
Associate, Audit/Assurance Services: $59,750 -> $60,500 (+1.26%)

That’s all for now, see you again soon with salaries for non-public accounting roles and a deeper dive on the public accounting numbers.

Update: Plugging some more numbers in for you since we know how much you love numbers. Let’s look at the salary numbers for 2021 -> 2022 -> 2023 -> 2024 and the percentage change from the year prior at the 50th percentile. The 2024 salary figures are bolded for additional clarity.

Tax services

Senior Manager/Director Tax Services: $137,500 -> $141,500 (+2.91%) –> $146,250 (+3.36) -> $159,500 (+9.06%)
Manager of Tax Services: $107,000 -> $110,000 (+2.8%) –> $112,750 (+2.5%) -> $112,750 (no change)
Senior Tax Associate: $73,250 -> $75,500 (+3.07%) -> $78,500 (+3.97%) -> $83,250 (+6.05%)
Tax Associate: $59,750 -> $61,500 (+2.93%) -> $63,000 (+2.44%) -> $64,750 (+2.78%)

Audit and Assurance services

Senior Manager/Managing Director, Audit/Assurance Services: $134,750 -> $139,750 (+3.71%) -> $144,500 (+3.4%) -> $150,250 (+3.98%)
Manager, Audit/Assurance Services: $93,500 -> $96,250 (+2.94%) -> $100,000 (+3.9%) -> $106,250 (+6.25%)
Senior Associate, Audit/Assurance Services: $66,750 -> $68,750 (+3%) -> $72,000 (+4.73%)-> $72,750 (+1.04%)
Associate, Audit/Assurance Services: $54,500 -> $56,750 (+4.13%) -> $59,750 (+5.29%)-> $60,500 (+1.26%)

The post 2024 Public Accounting Starting Salary Numbers Are In (UPDATED) appeared first on Going Concern.

To summarize most of the article: barrier to entry, US workforce hemorrhaged 334,000 accountants and auditors in two years, pipeline pipeline pipeline, blah blah. Scrolling down we get to the important bit:

First-year audit associates can expect to earn $59,000 on average this year, up from previous years, while entry-level corporate accountants can bring in $65,500 on average, according to Robert Half salary data.

Wages rose quickly in the last two years, although growth has slowed this year, Britton said.

Companies, not just CPA firms, are struggling to fill senior accountant roles and jobs for accountants with three to five years of experience. The staffing shortage has driven up market rates, pushing typical salaries for senior accountants to $100,000, said Frances Moreno, managing partner of staffing firm Vaco’s Los Angeles office.

Despite recent pay increases, salaries haven’t kept up with the high cost of college tuition and wages for roles in competing fields such as finance, data analysis, or computer science.

Surgent’s Castonguay dismissed the recent raises, calling them a “temporary blip, not a correction.”

“How you improve the brand is by improving the work experience,” he said. “That’s getting rid of the 150 hours so people come into the profession, and paying them more.”

Professor Castonguay isn’t getting invited to any AICPA dinners any time soon.

Over at Financial Times, Stephen Foley delivered his own article on the pipeline topic, this one packed with juicy quotes from various Chicken Littles* warning that the sky is falling. Except it actually is and by the time the king does something about it, it will probably be too late.

Here’s Bob Cedergren, chair of the Minnesota Society of CPAs:

“The Deloittes and PwCs of the world have the masses, they have offices everywhere and the ability to draw on overseas talent,” he said. “We needed to take some action.”

And Julie Blaha, Minnesota state auditor:

“This is now a severe shortage, and it is causing a tsunami of problems. It’s a shallow pool, and we have to do something about the leak.”

And some Big 4 people who didn’t want to be named:

“The 150-hour rule has prevented many talented folks from joining the profession,” said one Big Four audit executive. “The cost of an extra year of school is prohibitive and isn’t necessary to succeed in public accounting, or business in general.”

At another Big Four firm, one executive pointed out that many states do not require that courses taken in the fifth year of education have anything to do with accounting. A senior partner involved in recruiting there asked: “Is there an alternative, such as learning on the job, which is as good as or better than learning in the classroom?”

Representing the king is longtime Going Concern favorite Sue Coffey (hey Sue, I know you are reading this ) of the AICPA:

[She] said having the equivalent of five years of higher education remains a good idea, and removing the requirement is no silver bullet for dealing with a talent shortage. It took about two decades of work to align all 50 US states around the current standards and get agreement to recognise each other’s licences, and trying to repeat the feat looks daunting.

“What exists is a very delicate system of agreement and trust,” she said. “This has been my challenge with Minnesota. It just takes one to upset the applecart and that could upend mobility across the country.”

Alright so if the profession can’t agree on 150 that leaves salaries as the next problem in need of solving. That one should be easy.

*I did not intend to imply any of the people quoted in this article are “yo-yo wielding simpletons“

The post 150 Hour Rule: Let’s Keep Arguing About What Color the Drapes Should Be While the House is Burning Down appeared first on Going Concern.

Anyway, enough with the corny shit. When this opinion piece popped up in my Google News I was hoping for a refreshing take on the benefits of accounting as a career and some passionate cheerleading. Maybe a field report from some young, enthusiastic former partner who started in public and ended up controller at a cool startup or doing taxes for NBA stars or something. Perhaps finally some common misconceptions would be smashed!

Nah.

Accounting is a field with high demand, and successful accounting students are virtually guaranteed employment upon (or even prior to) graduation. I’m involved in recruiting for one of the largest accounting firms in Connecticut. When I talk to students about their biggest concerns in pursuing an accounting degree and a career in public accounting, they typically point to four misconceptions: lack of work-life balance, the difficulty of the CPA exam, lower pay compared to other financial career paths, and lack of excitement in the work.

Each of these objections is based on a misunderstanding of what a public accounting career is really like in 2023.

With all due respect, sir, these are not misconceptions. Pretending as if they are does a great disservice to young people and is part of the reason why the younguns have issued a collective “fuck that” when it comes to accounting. It depends on the firm of course but given that professors across accounting departments everywhere urge students to go into public accounting (miserly Big 4 firms in particular) with the threat of a pathetic career doing taxes in a strip mall for the rest of your life if you don’t, we need to be honest about starting salaries at public accounting firms. Yes, accountants have incredible lifetime earning potential. Fact. Yes, CPAs do even better over a lifetime. Fact. Good luck selling that to a 22-year-old kid with data analytics skills who can make buckets more money out of the gate in a different field when there’s a cost of living crisis.

The disappointment only grows from there. Here’s his take on work-life balance:

In accounting, finding balance is a matter of weighing the value of hard work and career progression. You get out of the job what you put into it. But the job doesn’t have to include excessive overtime hours every January through April. There’s been a shift in expectations in the industry — while you may be asked to work some overtime during the busier times, you have more flexibility around your schedule to accommodate other events in your life.

“You get out of the job what you put into it” compelled me to Google this guy, you can imagine my shock when I found a young Gen Xer and not an old man who had to walk to the uphill both ways in the snow to sit for all four parts of the CPA exam on a hard chair in a cattle barn on the Indiana State Fair Grounds over two days.

Way to minimize the reality for countless public accountants. Some of them are working more than ever due to firms being short-staffed, the offshore teams have it even worse. This claim is disingenuous at best, he should have stuck to the “yeah you have to pay your dues early on but it pays off as you advance up the ladder” pitch. Is there greater flexibility these days? Sure. Because people started quitting en masse if they couldn’t get it. It shouldn’t have taken a worldwide pandemic for firms to start letting people pick their kids up from school in the afternoon and finish their work from home later in the evening. Do many government and industry accountants have it better? Yep. Could have led with that, at least that’s mostly factual. And a big reason why so many accounting grads are bypassing public completely and going straight to industry or sticking to the more progressive tech-focused small firms. Let’s not lump them in with the public accounting meat grinder.

Moving on. The CPA exam is hard. Fact. Much like the ritual beating one must endure to gain lifetime membership into a street gang, it is at its core a test of one’s dedication to the profession with a test of entry-level knowledge secondary to that. “The path to becoming a CPA is challenging, but doable if approached strategically,” he says. Well obviously. If it wasn’t doable, no one would do it. Increasingly, they aren’t. This is a value proposition problem and as of now, the profession has not done a good enough job demonstrating value, something you’d think a bunch of accountants would excel at (no pun).

It’s true that becoming a CPA takes effort and dedication. A fifth year of college is generally required (to obtain the 150 credit hours required to become a CPA) even if you’re not getting a master’s degree in accounting.

Also, the CPA exam is hard. Only about 20 percent of candidates pass all four sections on the first try — a lower pass rate than the bar. But you don’t have to take all four parts at once, and the rates for passing each section are much higher, about 50 percent. As the AICPA points out on its website, “The Exam is not harder or easier to pass at different times. An increase in pass rates simply means that candidates are better prepared.”

The exam is doable if you approach it strategically, and the additional time and effort invested in becoming a CPA is worth its weight in gold.

This is your selling point? If I’d written this, I might have referenced This Way to CPA’s Why CPA? page. Under the “What’s in It For You?” section:

10-15% higher salary than regular accountants
Becoming a CPA is an investment. CPAs have the potential to boost their earnings by $1 million of their lifetime compared to a non-CPA in the same position.

I would not have referenced this from UWorld Roger CPA Review:

According to Monster Jobs, a CPA’s earnings over the course of 45 years is $3,200,000 if the starting pay is at $46,200 and the pay at 20+ years is $76,000. Such salary data was compiled by looking at the expected lifetime median earnings which were calculated for a 45-year period based on median annual pay levels for 1, 5, 10, and 20 years of experience in each position.

Yeah that’s got to be old info. It checks out though.

Thankfully those numbers have edged up in the last few years though it’s looking like the big jumps of last year are cooling off now.

Finally, here’s his pitch on salaries:

CPAs have a very strong starting salary, and comparisons can be deceiving

The idea that the pay for an accounting major coming out of college is lower compared to other finance or business careers is a bit misleading. Most college students in accounting have a job locked up by the beginning of their senior year — demand is that high. Everyone who leaves school with an accounting degree seems to get a job.

Bro at no point in that paragraph did you explain why it’s misleading, all you did was gaslight people about the accuracy of countless salary reports.

He does add:

Starting salaries in public accounting in 2023 are very good, typically exceeding $70,000. While other financial and professional fields might state similar or higher starting salaries, it’s important to note that they aren’t typically placing as high a percentage of students. It’s harder to get those jobs, and there aren’t very many of them, despite the volume of the surrounding buzz.

Like how he says “might state” as if investment banker salaries are some wildly unreliable As Seen on TV claim. Per the US Census Bureau, the median annual income for Americans in 2021 was $70,784. “Very good” is dependent on a lot of factors, for some people $70,000 is in fact very good. Let’s not kid ourselves, accounting salaries have lagged behind other fields for a very long time (see this 2022 Bloomberg Tax article “Accounting Faces Reckoning After Years of Sluggish Pay Growth“).

Now, high demand is an accurate selling point. In fact, it might be the best one the profession has. Young people may fall victim to being seduced into other career paths with the lure of better starting pay but at least some of them could be swayed into accounting by emphasizing that even in difficult economic times, accountants can find work more reliably than their classmates who went into tech or law. See also: At Least We Aren’t in Tech, Boast Smug Accountants Who Didn’t Get Laid Off Today. Sadly the layoffs came later.

In September 2009, Rick Telberg’s CPA Trendlines shared that the accounting industry added 2,300 jobs in August of that year while the broader US economy lost 216,000 jobs and unemployment hit 9.7 percent. For those not old enough to have experienced the Great Recession as an adult, that was a big deal and evidence of the profession’s resiliency even in tough times because boy were things dire back then. This is a strong selling point and one that is unique to accounting. Can lawyers say the same? No, see the “Notes From the Breadline” tag on Above the Law. Not that accounting escaped that period of time completely unscathed, comparatively speaking it hurt a lot less.

Next time go hard on the employability thing. That one’s not misleading. Talk about specific career opportunities available to accounting majors and tell stories of the people who work in and around the profession, especially those who aren’t in public because they seem to be happiest with their chosen career. That’s a better pitch than “the money isn’t that bad and the work-life balance is fine most of the time except for several months out of the year.”

The post Guy Who Works at a Firm Actually Named FML on Why Accounting Is a Great Career appeared first on Going Concern.

The press release courtesy the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas:

Christiane Kathleen Irwin, 44, was indicted in March 2022. She pleaded guilty to wire fraud before U.S. Magistrate Judge Toliver.

According to court documents, Ms. Irwin, who worked for a law firm and was responsible for submitting payroll each week, falsely inflated her salary, which was set at approximately $140,000 annually.

In accordance with her fraudulent payroll submission, the firm’s payroll vendor transferred her purported pay from the firm’s bank account into her bank account every two weeks.

Over the course of three years, from 2019 to 2021, Ms. Irwin took home $1.48 million in fraudulently obtained funds.

She now faces up to 20 years in federal prison. Her sentencing date is slated for Jan. 3, 2024. Irwin has agreed that the loss amount to the firm for restitution is over $1.48 million.

We’ll keep you posted on the outcome if anyone cares.

The post Unsatisfied With Her $140k Salary, Law Firm Controller Gave Herself a Raise appeared first on Going Concern.

Look, we all know that public accounting salaries always have been and probably always will be a major point of contention. It’s a career path of extremes when it comes to compensation, with analysts working long hours for tough pay, new staff barely scraping by, and some higher ups really raking it in. These variations and feelings about them – good or bad – make compensation a favorite topic among accounting professionals.

Reddit is filled with compensation threads, it feels like every recruitment agency has a salary guide these days, and many professionals openly discuss compensation on social media (or at least discuss their dissatisfaction). How is someone to know the source of truth? I set out on a mission to create a single source of information, powered by the input of professionals: Big4Transparency.com, an earnings transparency website where accounting professionals can anonymously share salary data with peers. The site has nearly 12,000 entries to date and has been used by hundreds of thousands of accounting professionals to ensure they are being compensated fairly (or at least competitively). Despite this, many professionals are completely unaware that access to quality compensation data exists.

Now this leads to the next question: why does salary transparency matter?

Above all else, accounting firms are in the business of making money. The larger ones have pay bands that are based on (sometimes questionable) research and hard data on accounting salaries. We might feel like we’re being underpaid in these cases, but the firms are at least basing their figures on data being collected by a third party – heck many of them even have people validating salary levels directly on what’s being discussed on Reddit and similar forums. Some smaller firms don’t really know how much you should be getting paid and so to save money their incentive is to offer as low as they can find someone to fill the position, so could be offering way below market, and it’s up to you to look out for yourself. This is where having a source you can trust that shows you the real salary figures comes in handy.

Another reason why salary transparency matters: pay equity. I’ve got a cousin who found out during an International Women’s Day activity where people were invited to openly discuss salaries that she was getting paid significantly less than her male coworkers. Maybe they negotiated salary harder, who knows, but that’s pretty messed up and salary transparency helps shed some light on these matters.

And lastly for the purposes of this article though certainly not the only reason salary transparency is important, it allows for more informed career planning. I’ll put it bluntly – some of us may have made different choices if we knew what we were getting into. BUT some of us would have been more at peace with it along the way. If I’d known that in ten years I’d almost definitely be earning a salary well above that of the average career, I might have thrown less fits as an analyst unable to rent a one bedroom apartment. There’s an upside to a career in this field, it’s just easy to lose sight of it in the early years. Everyone having access to the same information facilitates better conversations around the profession. Salary transparency and discussions that happen around it compel us to ask important questions like “Is this really how we want to structure the compensation pyramid curve or have we just inherited this structure from generations before and not stopped to question it?”

With the data on Big 4 Transparency, we’ve been able to open up discussions around topics like the loyalty tax (the gap between external hire and internal promotion salaries), the gender wage gap, which size firm has the highest level of job satisfaction, etc. Even more importantly, I’ve had countless users reach out to tell me that they were able to have frank discussions about salary with their employers, backed up by the data from Big 4 Transparency, which resulted in them negotiating a higher salary, or in some cases which resulted in them seeking out a new role where they would be compensated more in line with what their skillset was worth.

In short, it’s up to you to look out for yourself, and I’ve built a pretty cool tool to help you do so. I hope you find value in it, it’s free to use and if you’ve got ideas or feedback on it, I’m always listening and looking to improve it. If you’re looking to help the next person, you can anonymously add your own data to the pile if you so choose (but it’s not mandatory).

About the author: Before jumping to industry, I worked at the Big 4 firms in Canada where I was blindsided a few times by the salary. During my time there, I was able to prompt a raise for my whole cohort by canvasing the local firms for what they were paying people at my level. That was my introduction to the power of salary transparency and the inspiration for Big 4 Transparency.

Although I maintain a great relationship with the partners at the firm I worked at, and look back fondly at my time there, I think it’s crucial for professionals to have access to quality salary data. So it’s the mission at Big 4 Transparency to provide that to professionals for free.

The post A Word on Salary Transparency From THE Transparency Guy: Stop Going in Blind on Compensation appeared first on Going Concern.

Anyway, doesn’t matter, not going to happen. The first Everest plan didn’t work out and it’s been lentils and beans at EY since. Because the economy also sucks and demand for consulting services isn’t strong — especially from consulting firms that can’t even work out a clean split of their own divisions for the purposes of buckets of cash — it seems there will be another round of cuts and belt-tightening at EY UK. Another.

Michael O’Dwyer reports in Financial Times:

EY has told staff in the UK to expect less generous pay rises than last year and is launching a small round of redundancies as it faces rising costs and a difficult economic outlook.

Leaders at the Big Four firm’s British business, which employs about 18,500 people, also informed staff this week that bonus pools would be smaller than last year and would be split among a more limited group, according to people familiar with the matter.

Big ups to people familiar with the matter for blabbing. These familiar people told FT bonus pools for certain teams are getting cut by more than half. Anyone getting a paltry bonus is lucky though, luckier than the five or so percent of people in EY’s financial services consulting practice who will not have a job.

The firm will axe more than 5 per cent of its roughly 2,300-strong financial services consulting practice, with 150 jobs set to be cut in teams that advise on business transformation and risk management.

EY should have hired themselves to advise themselves on the risk of a failed split and the fallout thereof.

We’re hearing limited grumblings of a bit of fat-cutting on this side of the Atlantic, nothing that couldn’t be attributed to the shedding of low performers for now. If you’ve heard otherwise you know what to do.

The post EY UK to Everyone Who Works at EY UK: ‘Go F*ck Yourselves’ appeared first on Going Concern.

AFR wrote about EY Australia audit salaries this morning (their morning):

The starting pay for most auditing staff in parts of EY’s financial services division will not increase this year, at the same time the firm has told clients that “significant wage inflation” had forced it to increase its audit fees.

Only graduate pay will increase for auditing staff in the division, with new starters set to earn $66,500, including superannuation, an increase of less than 1 per cent from last year’s starting pay of $66,000.

All other ranks in the area will earn the same starting pay as last financial year, despite inflation running at 6 per cent, according to data seen by The Australian Financial Review.

The firm has told clients the cost of salaries in its audit division is up 11.1 per cent for 2023. This figure takes into account average pay increases and promotions, and is separate to base pay for most EY auditing staff not increasing in 2023.

Here’s a handy chart AFR put together. $66,000 AUD is about $42,700 in US dollars so this year’s incoming auditors are getting base pay of about $43k USD and seniors $56.3k.

Australian inflation has been between 6-8% in the past year.

EY pointed to salary increases in a letter to clients earlier this year when they raised fees. “Demand for our services and the competencies of our people is driving significant wage inflation across the industry,” the firm said. “This is driving significant increases to our cost base to remain competitive and assist with retention of our people. We understand [client name] is experiencing the same challenges.” Clients were told EY’s audit salaries increased by 11.1 percent for 2023, a number based not only on base pay. Unlike the other three firms, EY does not publicly share its salaries.

Said an EYer to AFR, the lack of raises this year was due in some part to leadership betting on low turnover again this year. Firms across the world are experiencing lower-than-expected attrition and the market for professional services is no longer the boom it was just a year or two ago (sorry). “I don’t think it is inflation that is driving salaries,” said the staffer to AFR. “It’s more retention. They see the outlook and it will be less of any issue,” they said. “Where I think it is hard is particularly graduates, they’re essentially making 6 per cent less, which is headline inflation, than the previous group.” Essentially, people are sticking around so the firm isn’t as worried that disappointing salary news will force them out onto the market.

EY audit pay rates stay the same despite inflation [AFR]

Related:

Word Hits TikTok That Big 4 Firms Are Cheap Bastards, “It’s Modern Day Slavery”

The post Sorry EY Australia Auditors, No Raise For You This Year appeared first on Going Concern.

Without any further blathering on, here are ten things firms should prioritize in recruiting:

1. Assess whether candidates are a good fit for your firm on both a professional and personal level
2. Ensure the salary offered is genuinely competitive
3. Offer flexible working arrangements
4. Highlight your firm’s work environment and
5. Have the patience to find top-quality candidates
6. Offer attractive benefits and incentives
7. Have a transparent interview process
8. Offer learning and training opportunities
9. Make use of recruiting agencies
10. Advertise across multiple and diverse recruiting channels

So really that’s two compensation-related items (competitive salary and attractive benefits/incentives). Under item two they say:

Are you familiar with the market rate for the job role you’re trying to fulfill? Take the time to research the salaries of similar roles at other companies, as well as any comparable job descriptions, experience levels, and qualifications you are seeking. You may also want to look at the job market in your area to identify any regional differences in salaries for related positions.

Employers: this means if you want a CPA you better pay for it. Same goes for X years of experience. You might be able to save a few bucks if you offer a slightly less in salary but cap hours at 35, are fully remote, have an excellent health plan, and subsidize doggy day care/gym memberships/XBoxes/whatever. You don’t get to pay people less and expect them to grind out 60 hours a week, in office, with nothing but free K-pods and a company-provided wrist rest. Do better.

Item six elaborates on this point:

On top of the usual benefits like competitive salaries, paid time off, and flexible work arrangements, you can also appeal to candidates by offering:

• Comprehensive health and dental plans
• Tuition reimbursement
• Retirement plans
• Gym memberships
• Career development opportunities

Your firm can also offer additional incentives such as bonuses for exceptional performance and other rewards based on the length of their employment.

It really is that simple.

The post These 10 Tips for Successful Accounting Firm Recruitment Aren’t Terrible At All appeared first on Going Concern.

Citigroup Inc. has begun telling managers to let staffers know they’ll face consequences if they don’t comply with policies for office attendance.

While the vast majority of staffers are following the firm’s rules for hybrid work, the moves are focused on those employees with persistent, unexplained absences, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Managers will consider compliance with the rules when rating performance and crafting pay packages, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing information that isn’t public.

“We are committed to our hybrid work model and proud of the flexibility it provides our colleagues to work at least three days per week in the office and up to two days remotely,” Citigroup said in a statement. “We have firm expectations for office attendance and know that the majority of our employees are compliant with their requirements. As necessary, we hold colleagues accountable for adhering to their in-office days.

Citi began pushing a return to office pretty hard in January. CEO Jane Fraser told a Bloomberg News panel during the World Economic Forum in Davos that the company would be dragging low performers back into the office, suggesting that it’s the people working at home who aren’t doing the work.

Best of luck to them with that.

Citi workers flouting return-to-office mandate to face consequences: ‘We hold colleagues accountable’ [Fortune]

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Reports Financial Times:

The firm’s junior auditors were told on a webcast last week that the pay band for one cohort would be frozen while others would increase by 3 or 6 per cent, resulting in real-terms pay cuts, firm insiders told the Financial Times. UK inflation stood at 8.7 per cent in May.

The presentation followed a memo to employees in which PwC’s chief people officer Ian Elliott said pay rises would be smaller than last year when it gave out record increases to retain staff in the face of a hot labour market and soaring inflation.

One junior auditor told the FT they were “shocked” that pay was being frozen for many senior associates in the audit division and that they and others might quit as a result. PwC’s most junior auditors are paid between £26,000 and £34,000 a year depending on location, an insider said.

Quick recap on PwC UK partner pay the past few years:

• 2019: £765,000
• 2020: £685,000 (fuck you, Rona)
• 2021: £868,000
• 2022: £1,000,000 thanks in part to the £1.83 billion ($2.2 billion USD) sale of a business providing tax advice for companies moving staff overseas to US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice

Two weeks ago, Financial Reporting Council chair Jan du Plessis told FT audit firms should — and can — pay their junior auditors more. “There has been a significant increase in profitability at all the audit firms. They have the resources available to increase the pay levels of more junior people that they want to attract into their firms and it’s up to them whether they want to do so,” he said. Guess PwC UK leadership didn’t see that article. Suck it, du Plessis.

The rest of the FT article lines up with what we’re seeing here on our side of the world: too many folks on the bench and firms being too generous with performance reviews, the latter being a result of firms intentionally taking it easy on people last year to hang onto talent and historically low attrition preventing the usual churn baked into firms’ business models.

While parts of the business were growing strongly, Elliott said in his memo that “the market has been challenging”.

There would be a similar number of promotions to last year (which are typically accompanied by big automatic pay rises attached to seniority), he said. But while the bonus pool would be bigger this year, average individual awards would be smaller because staff numbers had grown, he added.

Some PwC divisions have also significantly increased the number of staff being placed on “performance improvement” programmes, according to people at the firm. These programmes are typically used by consulting firms as a prelude to removing a proportion of employees each year.

They were less prevalent as the sector battled to hire and retain staff to keep pace with post-pandemic demand for advice on deals and ways to adapt business models to the rise of online commerce.

A PwC insider told the FT that one team had gone from having only a small fraction of staff whose performance was under review last year to as many as 15 or 20 per cent this year.

“Following record pay increases last year, we have again invested in salary uplifts across our business,” said PwC to FT. “Our decisions are informed by the firm’s performance, external market conditions and the investments we make in response to client demand.”

The post Already Underpaid PwC UKers Get Told Bonuses Will Suck This Year appeared first on Going Concern.

CFOs at the UK’s largest companies complained about rising audit fees in a letter to Big 4 leadership last year. And we have all heard the complaints from junior auditors.

FT:

Senior partners at the Big Four — Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC — have claimed that criticism from politicians and regulators, including high-profile fines for poor work, is making it more difficult to recruit and retain auditors.

But Sir Jan du Plessis, chair of the Financial Reporting Council, hit back, denying that the watchdog’s tough approach had made the profession unappealing.

It isn’t just Big 4 firms complaining about the FRC’s heavy hand. Earlier this year, auditors at the mid-tiers said that increased scrutiny from the FRC is only “cementing the oligopoly” of Big 4. “The regulatory pressure is becoming unbearable,” griped a senior auditor. Meanwhile, FRC CEO Sir Jon Thompson has told firms to knock it off with all the complaining and focus on improving their work. “It’s no good complaining about the fines,” he said in an interview with FT. “The solution is entirely in [firms’] hands. Do a good audit and you don’t get in trouble with us.” Haha git gud, scrubs.

Back to FT:

Average partner pay at the Big Four has soared in recent years, passing £1mn a year at two of the firms [Ed. note: Deloitte and PwC passed £1 million in partner pay, KPMG came in lowest at £757,000 ($954k USD)]. But with the exception of big increases last year as inflation soared, pay rises for junior auditors have been small over the past decade, and have failed to keep pace with salary growth in law and consulting.

PwC raised average pay for its London-based audit graduates to £32,000 last year, roughly half the salary of the City’s best-paid legal trainees.

Du Plessis, former chair of BT and Rio Tinto, said the difficulty auditors faced recruiting the right people was no different to that in many other sectors. Accounting bosses fear that staff shortages will be exacerbated by increasing demand from companies for external validation of their climate disclosures in addition to traditional financial statements.

“If you’re a young person today looking to join a profession, I’d have thought you’d want to join a profession that sets very high standards,” he said of the FRC’s aggressive enthusiasm for audit quality.

Big Four accounting firms urged to pay junior auditors more [FT]

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KPMG has slashed the bonus pool of its UK workforce and reined in commission for salespeople as its profits falter amid a slowdown in the dealmaking environment this year, City A.M. has learned.

The big four firm told staff in its mid-year update last week that some bonuses would be slashed by as much as half while sales staff were told their commission could be held back until the end of the year.

In a note to staff seen by City A.M., bosses told workers that while the company had seen “double-digit growth in many areas of the firm” it had “not been as high as we’d planned”.

“This means that our profit, and our bonus pool as a result, will be reduced on our original expectations,” bosses said.

Staff in the firm’s UK-wide business development team were told yesterday that the company would hold back 40 per cent of total discretionary commission until the year end, but it could not guarantee they would be paid the full amount, a source on the call told City A.M.

Staff were already told in March there would not be mid-year promotions in 2023, in audit anyway.

While we haven’t seen any communications here in the US yet, a tipster did advise us that KPMG bonuses on this side of the pond may be light as well. “No bonus to some and bonuses will be less for others,” they said. Those who brought in business will for sure see a bonus, they added. That’s as yet unconfirmed but our tipster is solid, reach out if you have more info.

Last year, KPMG US was quite generous with mid-year raises on April 1. The market has shifted dramatically since then as firms across the board are seeing a significant contraction in consulting fees and lower-than-expected attrition due in part to a cooling off of last year’s scorching hot accounting job market. Will be interesting to see how things shake out in October, here’s some Reddit gossip about that.

2022’s generosity was also spread to our friends across the pond when KPMG UK handed out £2,000 ($2500) or £4,000 raises to 15,800 staff, costing the firm £51.7 million. That’s on top of a £100 million bonus pool. Wrote CEO Jon Holt (who took home £2.7 million in 2022) on LinkedIn 13 months ago:

Because of our people’s efforts, and the work they do every day for our clients and communities, our business is performing strongly and we’re making great progress on our strategy. And we want to recognise that contribution and address some of the immediate pressures on them.

So I was really proud to announce to our colleagues yesterday that everyone in our firm will each receive an overnight flat salary increase of between £2,000 and £4,000. It’s progressive and we’ve deliberately designed this so that our more junior colleagues feel the greatest benefit now. This is separate to our annual pay review later in the year and doesn’t include our partners or associate partners.

This came months before the firm announced revenue of £2.72 billion ($3.4 billion) for the year ended September 30, 2022, a 12 percent increase over the year prior. Deal advisory saw the biggest jump, increasing 24 percent to £443 million ($555 million). Audit, Tax and Legal, and Consulting also saw double digit growth of 10 percent, 13 percent, and 22 percent, respectively. When revenue numbers came out in January, it was expected that consulting would continue to drive growth, meanwhile KPMG UK told audit clients they would be raising fees. “The sector is facing a number of upward cost drivers, from new audit and accounting standards to inflationary pressures,” said their CEO at the time. Audit fees at Big 4 firms in the UK have been on the rise for years, increasing 22 percent since 2018. Clients naturally dislike this.

But then the great slowdown hit and KPMG US became the first of the Big 4 to lay off advisory staff. Since then we’ve seen EY, Deloitte, BDO, and Grant Thornton shed about 5,300 staff all told (tbf 3,000 of those belong to EY). And that isn’t counting silent layoffs and performance-based separations. As of February, KPMG UK spokesfolks said there is no plan for layoffs.

And the belts continue to tighten across the profession.

The post Bonus Season Is Not Looking Good at the King’s KPMG appeared first on Going Concern.

At its spring meeting in Washington this week, the AICPA’s governing body (“Council”) approved this plan. Yay. Cue measured fanfare.

From Journal of Accountancy:

The resolution acknowledges the challenges facing the talent pipeline and the need for a “thoughtful strategic process” in the search for solutions while reiterating the Council’s commitment to preserving the mobility of CPA licensees. [AICPA CEO—Public Accounting Susan] Coffey said the state CPA societies’ role in helping address the pipeline is essential.

The resolution reads in part: “This collaborative process, convened by and through the AICPA, should result in a continuous research-driven national pipeline strategy that, among other things, addresses the image of the profession in the eyes of students as well as educational and experience requirements, and outlines short and long-term initiatives and actions that result in measurable outcomes to address the profession’s ongoing and evolving human capital needs and priorities.”

As you can see from the above graphic, this plan includes many things that would be wholly unnecessary were starting salaries at public accounting firms able to compete with the industries currently jacking talent from the profession at the college level. Going into high schools to talk about the opportunities in accounting is great, people should be doing that. Extending the time a person has to pass all four parts of the CPA exam is great, too. As are alternate pathways to licensure but not everyone agrees on that one. All of this is pointless if the money isn’t there.

The original pipeline acceleration plan released earlier this year was just eight items, seen here in this AICPA Town Hall Series video and believe it or not, it was somehow more useless than the 50% larger 12-point plan.

On the Integrated Education and Experience Program, the South Carolina Association of CPAs Board of Directors said they “have no confidence in this proposed solution” in this January 24 letter to the AICPA and NASBA:

While this initiative could ultimately lower the candidate cost for the remaining 30 hours, we feel strongly that it will not adequately address pipeline compression. We do not believe this approach removes barriers to entry, but instead places additional strain on those seeking to join the profession. As such, we have no confidence in this proposed solution.

Alright, what else do they have?

The revised plan has the Experience, Learn & Earn program which Director of the School of Accountancy at University of Denver Sharon Lassar, PhD, CPA has written about here and here. Here’s an excerpt from her guest post “Is It Ethical to Endorse an Educational Path That Is Susceptible to Cheating?”:

The AICPA should disclose exactly what will be taught in the ELE program. If it moves forward, it should disclose the characteristics of the students enrolled; the courses selected, attempted, and completed with grade earned; the parts of the CPA exam attempted and those passed by the candidates before they started the ELE program; the parts scheduled, attempted, and passed while enrolled; and, the time to complete this pathway to licensure. If this model is one that the profession uses to justify the continuation of the 150-hour rule, it should also then show the progression of these candidates through their careers. Each year’s annual salary and rank should be disclosed. Let’s get some real data that is open for academics to analyze.

I’ll leave those high level discussions to people smarter than anyone here but I do happen to be an expert in getting paid diddly squat so believe me when I say if you pay them, they will come.

Supposedly salaries fall under item 2 of the revised plan: “Addressing firm culture and business model challenges.” In AICPA language:

In collaboration with stakeholders, the AICPA has identified initiatives that address the following key areas:

• Awareness: Increasing awareness about the accounting profession and promoting the benefits of a career in accounting
• Improved perceptions: Dispelling outdated perceptions and leveraging updated, positive messaging that can help the profession resonate with today’s students
• Training and education: Providing high-quality accounting education and training opportunities
• Firm culture and business models: Equipping firms with the tools to offer competitive salaries and benefits, as well as career advancement opportunities and compelling work

Firms have the tools. They just don’t want to use them.

Why not save everyone a lot of time and address THE #1 cause? They could send a bunch of AICPA goons to shake down firm leaders and tell them it’s time to pay up. Please record it and put it on YouTube.

Pay better salaries, attract more students, hire more graduates, then we can get to work on the second biggest issue scaring young people away from the profession: the hours.  It won’t totally fix the problem but it’ll at least push the needle and get us through this rough spot before automation saves the day and puts everyone out of a job like they’ve been threatening it will for a decade now. Maybe that’s why firms are putting so much money into technology investments and AI? Whatever, just don’t complain that you can’t find talent in the meantime.

I’m aware there are problems other than pay plaguing the profession but all of this crap is like a municipality focusing on patching potholes while half the city is in flames. PUT OUT THE FIRE FIRST.

Tangentially related:

Want to Do Your Part to Help the Accountant Shortage? Here’s What You Can Do Right Now

The post AICPA Council Approves 12-Point Plan to Do F*ck All to Solve the Accountant Shortage appeared first on Going Concern.

If you assumed the plan would revolve around an aggressive effort to bully firms into paying people what they’re worth, you’d be wrong.

“The detailed plan features input from a significant set of stakeholders and calls for those stakeholders to work together to increase the number of accounting graduates and the number of graduates who obtain CPA licensure,” reads the Journal of Accountancy article touting this new and improved pipeline acceleration plan.

And here it is.

“Building the CPA pipeline requires a united effort from all stakeholders tied to the profession,” said Going Concern favorite Susan Coffey, CPA, CGMA, the AICPA’s CEO of public accounting in the news release. “We need to work together to raise awareness about the rewarding work we do, broaden the range of talent we draw from, and address stumbling blocks that derail too many prospective CPA candidates. As the largest national body for the accounting profession, the AICPA is uniquely positioned to channel ideas into action and mobilize efforts in a coordinated way to achieve success. Our plan offers a framework for moving forward but is by no means the last word – this is an evolving process that will require resolve, foresight and close collaboration with important partners.”

We find out from the AICPA’s blog post about the pipeline acceleration plan that improving salaries for accountants falls under item #2, Addressing firm culture and business model challenges:

In collaboration with stakeholders, the AICPA has identified initiatives that address the following key areas:

• Awareness: Increasing awareness about the accounting profession and promoting the benefits of a career in accounting
• Improved perceptions: Dispelling outdated perceptions and leveraging updated, positive messaging that can help the profession resonate with today’s students
• Training and education: Providing high-quality accounting education and training opportunities
• Firm culture and business models: Equipping firms with the tools to offer competitive salaries and benefits, as well as career advancement opportunities and compelling work
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Attracting and retaining a broader range of talent
• Partnering with educational institutions: Affiliating with colleges and universities to offer internships, scholarships, and other programs to attract individuals to the profession, help defray costs, and assist students in developing the skills needed to succeed as a CPA.

Good luck convincing firms to do the one thing they should have done 15 years ago that got us into this mess in the first place. If that one issue is not remedied, then the rest of this is pointless.

A synopsis and full version of the Pipeline Acceleration Plan are available directly from the AICPA. In the meantime, no one be shocked when the next AICPA Trends report comes out.

The post Here’s the AICPA’s Revised 12-Point Plan to Herd Students Into Accounting appeared first on Going Concern.

Financial Times has written about BDO USA’s plan to double its offshore workforce and couched the move as a direct result of the accountant shortage here in the US. “Shortage of young accountants leads BDO USA to double offshore workforce,” reads their headline. Some details from that article:

• BDO USA will add thousands of overseas jobs, largely in India
• The firm is aiming to have 5,000 people at BDO RISE within five years
• The firm currently employs about 12,000 people, has 2,000 people in India, and recently added about 100 jobs in South Africa

“We are seeing a tremendous talent shortage in the profession,” said BDO USA CEO Wayne Berson to FT. “While it would be nice to just hire domestically, you have got to be open to the notion that maybe someone else has something that you don’t have, that you can buy.” For cheap. He forgot for cheap.

People who regularly point out that there isn’t an accountant shortage but rather a shortage of salary offered to domestic accountants (looking at you, Reddit) will be pleased to hear that the FT article goes on to acknowledge that “US starting salaries for accountants often fail to match up to those available in finance or technology.”

As we already know, audit and tax in particular are starved for talent for reasons that I shouldn’t have to explain to anyone in audit or tax. Just in case though, FT includes this:

Berson said young people appear more interested in becoming consultants than joining the more stable, but less immediately lucrative, tax and audit professions.

“The next generation are wanting to move quickly, wanting to be excited by their job. A lot of them are looking at things like advisory services,” he said.

You know what’s exciting? Money.

Anyway, the FT article made me remember a tip we got way back in March when BDO laid off 85 advisory people. Actually it was more like 125 people including 40 back office folks but who’s counting. Just days after advisory head Eskander Yavar wished the newly-severed “the very best,” Wayne Berson and his entourage traveled to India to party with the RISE folks (RISE stands for “round-the-clock international services for excellence” which is just a fancy way of saying “cheaper offshore talent”). There was much celebrating the visit on LinkedIn at the time:

While we’re here, let’s look at some chatter from BDO’s bowl on Fishbowl around that time:

All of this might compel a reasonable person to ask if the so-called “shortage” is really the problem.

The post Rise Up! BDO USA Is Gonna Double Its Offshore Workforce, Mostly in India appeared first on Going Concern.

I just met with my coach and although I was rated as strong in all categories, the firm has decided to defer my promotion for 1 year. I am 2nd year analyst up for promo to C. I had been told this whole time that promo to C is basically automatic. Coach shared the due diligence feed back with me and nothing bad was listed. I really don’t understand what I did wrong. He doesn’t know either. Came in as exp hire as well, so the title demotion was already a bit of a shock. GPS consulting HC 93k. Hired June 2021.

He did just say that As who haven’t hit the 2 year mark are less likely to be promoted this round cause the firm is worried about not having enough analysts since they aren’t hiring as many. But idk if I believe that.

Anyone else in the same boat?

Edit to add: current utilization over 100%. December utilization was 88%.

According to our tipster, there are “several known instances” of coaches having told their coachees that promotion was inevitable. “Today [yesterday], several of these employees had their promotions clawed back due to a ‘final screening process’ that office PPMDs and coaches did not have insight to.” Our tipster doesn’t know if any senior manager promo candidates were affected, telling us the people they know of were up for consultant, senior, or manager in both risk and financial advisory and consulting.

Numerous people have reported similar experiences, and these aren’t burnouts we’re talking about.

Yes, happened to me too. Util 95%, 100% this year. Higher end for all categories, recommendations from leaders, many strong impacts, etc. Coach said he heard promos were limited due to how the business is performing

And:

Welcome to the party. I was also not promoted. Experienced hire within EP. 5 years of experience. Onboarded as an analyst w/ promotion timeline of 2023. Coach states, likely event is economic uncertainty. He also stated if I had joined a year earlier, my results would have definitely allowed me to get promoted. I’m bummed but, life goes on.

Client work: Strong

Firm work: Exceptional

AND:

I don’t think it’s you’re [sic] coaches fault. Looks like alot of people are getting screwed with promos. Cost cutting and difficulty staffing the higher up you go.

Conspiracy time:

Most likely a tactic to get people to voluntarily leave especially if there was no negative feedback.

I think it’s to get people to voluntarily leave tbh. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case

Only days ago, Deloitte announced layoffs of 3% (1200 people) on a Risk & Financial Advisory all-hands call but the firm insists that overall client demand remains strong. “As growth in select practices moderates, we are taking modest personnel actions where necessary,” said Jonathan Gandal, managing director of Deloitte Services to FOX Business.

Audit and Tax promotion announcements have not been made yet.

The post What TF Is Going on With Deloitte Promotions? appeared first on Going Concern.

Here’s the TL;DR:

An extensive literature examines whether senior executives’ contractual incentives influence their financial reporting decisions. However, little is known about whether — and how — the incentives of lower-level (or “rank-and-file”) employees, who are perhaps even more directly involved in the financial reporting process, influence their behavior. We use a proprietary database with detailed, employee-specific information about these employees’ incentive-compensation plans and find that although firms with relatively well-paid accounting employees tend to issue higher quality financial reports, their reports tend to be of lower quality when these employees’ compensation is contingent rather than fixed. We also find that these relationships are more pronounced at firms whose senior executives have stronger contractual incentives to misreport, which sheds light on when lower-level accounting employees have incentives to promote, discourage, or thwart financial misreporting.

The researchers say that focusing only on the relationship between senior executive incentives and financial reporting is a mistake because it’s the low level “subordinates” (e.g., financial accountants, cost accountants, internal auditors, and other accounting and finance employees) that have more direct access to, and more frequent involvement with, their company’s accounting and control processes than their superiors. In other words, it’s the people in the trenches who you might want to look at if you are analyzing the battlefield.

Any evidence based on only a handful of senior executives—typically the chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), or the five highest-paid executives—can lead to misleading or, at best, incomplete inferences about how employees’ contractual incentives shape their firm’s financial reports and disclosures, and financial misreporting in particular. One reason is that even if a CEO has incentives to manipulate earnings, one or more subordinates are typically required to make the necessary alterations—whether knowingly or unwittingly—to instantiate the CEO’s intentions. However, accounting employees who become aware of attempts to misreport might have incentives to take remedial actions rather than participate. These include making a correcting adjustment, reducing the magnitude of the misstatement (e.g., rendering it “immaterial”), and, in more extreme or egregious cases, “blowing the whistle” by alerting the board, the firm’s external auditors, media outlets, or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Even if senior executives may have considerable motives to misreport, this will only occur if their actions are not impeded by the subordinates responsible for making the actual accounting entries. Therefore, at best, it is difficult to draw complete inferences from the relationship between senior executives’ incentives and accounting manipulation alone without also considering the incentives of certain subordinate (e.g., accounting) employees.

They looked at proprietary data that include details about the incentive compensation of individual accounting and other employees from 384 publicly traded U.S. companies from 2000 through 2004 and found evidence of a positive relationship between accountants’ contractual incentives—measured using the amount or level of their total annual pay—and their firm’s financial reporting quality.

They also found some evidence of a negative relationship between the extent to which accounting employees’ annual compensation is from contingent—rather than fixed—forms of pay (e.g., annual bonuses that are a function of earnings, and equity compensation that is a function of stock price and implicit earnings), and the quality of their firms’ financial reports. This suggests that bonuses and the like that are tied to company performance may incentivize the grunts to look the other way when it comes to questionable accounting in the company books. “The prospect of losing that additional bit of income over their career can outweigh any gains from turning a blind eye to misreporting or errors,” said Armstrong, noting that “police officers are more likely to take bribes if they are underpaid.”

These findings are consistent with the notion that accountants with stronger incentives to monitor their company’s financial reporting processes contribute to the production of higher-quality accounting reports, say the researchers.

They also found that SOX had a positive effect on salaries (remember, the researchers were looking at data from 2000 to 2004):

SOX mandated lower bounds on the quality of firms’ public financial reports and produced variation in reporting quality that associates with changes with respect to individual firms’ employee compensation decisions. Consequently, we expect that non-compliant firms had to spend—and, in particular, pay their accountants—more in order to comply. Consistent with our conjecture, we find that SOX led to increased accountant salaries—as well as increased staffing of accounting departments overall—at firms that had lower-quality accounting prior to the mandate. We also find that the firms at which accountants’ pay increased the most had the largest improvements in financial reporting quality. These findings provide corroborating evidence that accounting employees’ contractual incentives influence their firm’s financial reporting quality.

Pretty interesting paper and definitely a topic worth further study. You can check out the whole paper here.

The post Researchers Shockingly Discover That If You Pay Low Level Grunts More, They Do Better Financial Reporting appeared first on Going Concern.

Since we’re all sick about talking about the talent shortage, let’s take a look at the second biggest problem for firms in 2023: Rising salaries.

Text:

2. Rising salaries

Scarce supply and high demand can only mean one thing: higher prices.

“Rapidly rising compensation rates in our industry — and poaching from large, national firms” are serious problems for firms, according to Erica Ishida, president and COO of Ohio’s Apple Growth Partners.

Firms have to pay talent so much more, in fact, that many of them share the concern of Glen Swanson, CFO at MHCS in Iowa, about “maintaining profitability while having to significantly increase salaries.”

Raising salaries to levels that would put accounting back in the game as an attractive major to students is indubitably a hardship for firms. F.

Now let’s see a chart of staff salaries over the same period https://t.co/2vEabzGTJd

— Going Concern (@going_concern) March 14, 2023

We have said this before but raising salaries now would hurt a lot less had firms done a better job of doing it over the last decade and a half or so. You know, incrementally. Instead, firms skated by year after year as computer science lured the would-be accountants away with its shiny technology and superior starting salaries. Suddenly 15 years have gone by and new hires are making basically the same money their predecessors — who are now partner age — made when they were hired in the early ‘aughts. That’s changing now, thankfully, but it should have been done a decade ago.

While we’re here, let’s look at accounting’s biggest issues in 2017 (Accounting Today):

Firms continue to face a myriad of issues that affect the way they work, including increased regulation and global complexity, a shift in the workforce, and new client demands for value-added services.

More recently, though, new issues have emerged that have actually put into question the role and value of accountants in general, such as artificial intelligence and robotic process automation, which has really shined a spotlight on the profession. The Boston Consulting Group predicts that by 2025, up to one quarter of jobs will be replaced by either smart software or robots. A separate study from Oxford University suggests that 35 percent of existing jobs in the United Kingdom are at risk of automation in the next 20 years. Among the top 10 percent of jobs most likely to be automated: insurance underwriters, tax preparers, loan officers, credit analysts, and accounting professionals.

Ah to go back to the days when they were threatening to put you out of work! If only firms had been more proactive about the salary issue, they’d have five better problems to focus their efforts on in 2023. Like automation, succession planning, and how to get more Papa John’s coupons.

The post Accounting Firm Leaders Cite ‘Rising Salaries’ As The Second Biggest Problem Facing Their Firms appeared first on Going Concern.

VSCPA did a very similar survey in 2020 [executive summary PDF here] and compared to that, accountants in the state saw the biggest salary bump in:

There were some unexpectedly low changes elsewhere, particularly at the 7-9.9 years experience level and Partners:

A few other points from the executive summary:

• Among non-accountants, mean salaries for staff in support positions include Finance ($109,013), IT ($91,000), Human Resources ($87,727), and Marketing ($78,882). Those in General Administration ($53,516) and Paraprofessionals/Bookkeepers ($55,173) earn less.
• Non-accounting positions also showed sharp changes from 2020, with Finance (+34.5%) and IT (+21.8%) making considerably more, and HR (+12.5%), Marketing (+6.2%), Paraprofessionals (+5.4%), and General Administration (+3.7%) earning smaller 2-year increases in mean salary.
• Participants in public firms indicated their highest and lowest salary by staff category if they had more than one person in a position. Average spreads can be quite wide, as high as 75% among Partners, 60% among Directors, and between 19% and 29% among Accountants I-III.

Finally, this note is the takeaway:

Overall, public firms reported a mean increase in salary of 7.6% between October 2021-22 [emphasis ours] and anticipate a slightly lower mean of 6.6% in October 2022-23. This is considerably higher than the 4.0% annual real and anticipated increases in 2020. Average increases in industry/corporate (mean 7.0%/median 5.0%) and government/nonprofit (mean 8.1%/median 7.0%) in 2021-22 were also relatively high.

You can check out more on the survey results or purchase a full report from the VSCPA here.

The post Survey Says: Virginia Accountant Salaries By Experience Level appeared first on Going Concern.

Another day, another article purporting to offer the solution to the precipitous drop in accounting talent over the past several years that doesn’t involve paying people more. “Young people” have been blamed for talent shortages long before an actual shortage existed, what with all their job-hopping and demanding employers accept that they have a life outside of work. Now thanks to this Bloomberg Tax opinion piece we find out that the problem is not low salaries nor poor work-life balance nor a distinctive lack of ping pong tables at public accounting firms across the United States. No, it’s that the tech isn’t cool enough.

A new crop of talented accountants are demanding independence, flexibility, and the ability to work on their own terms. By championing software-as-a-service products, the profession can give digital natives the freedom to be creative by taking entry-level work off their plates, says Anees Pretorius of Bean.

Every year, business-savvy graduates who excel at mathematics, critical thinking and analysis, join the workforce in droves. So why is our country facing a shortage of accountants?

The answer is simple: Younger workers today want an entrepreneurial career path. They want to abandon outdated technologies and fully embrace new digital tools, stretch the limits of their abilities, and collaborate freely with others who are doing the same.

Look, there’s validity in this view. Accounting’s reputation of boring, repetitive work naturally scares some people away. And if that doesn’t scare them away, the sheer volume of boring, repetitive work will (remember the guy whose internship made him decide accounting wasn’t for him despite majoring in it? “I was a little scared of it, not going to lie,” he told WSJ. “I don’t know if I want to do all that.”) Much of the technology is outdated, though when new stuff gets rolled out it isn’t always to fanfare by the people who have to use it (looking at you, EY Canvas). So to say that the profession needs some fresh tech to take some of the grunt work off people’s plates isn’t wrong, suggesting that a lack of it is why young people are not pursuing accounting is.

Better technology and automation have their place. And it is indeed a big place. Technology may be the only thing that can come close to minimizing accounting’s work-life balance problem. But unless the plan is to update the technology to the point human beings aren’t required to do the work, all the cool tech in the world will not fix the profession’s fundamental problem: LOW. STARTING. SALARIES.

Where are all the new CPAs? pic.twitter.com/cvmbzkw2WG

— Tax TeleGraf (@LoganGrafTax) February 16, 2023

The opinion piece goes on to suggest that what we need to do is foster the spirit of entrepreneurship in young people. And again, that’s a great idea. More and more accountants are striking out on their own, creating awesome little tech-forward shops of their own. That’s great! More of that, please! But it doesn’t fix the thing that is making students say accounting is just not worth it, literally.

Because younger workers are reconsidering the idea of the “partner track,” the industry should roll out the kinds of digital tools that enable any accountant to begin building their own accounting consultancy. This streak of independent thinking and entrepreneurship among younger workers is taking hold whether the industry approves of it or not. Accounting associations and accounting firms would be wise not just to accept this, but to encourage it.

It will become harder over time for any firm to convince younger workers that plodding along the partner track for years—even decades—is the way to reach the pinnacle of the industry. Connected social technologies are allowing any professional to build equity in their own brand, and collaboration tools help them join forces with the brightest and the best, wherever they are. This kind of functionality is a must-have for digital natives, so that’s what it should become for the industry.

Accounting has never been viewed as entrepreneurial, but going forward, it must be. This is the only way to attract the new crop of talented accountants, who increasingly demand independence, flexibility, and the ability to work on their own terms. A SaaS-enabled market network is making this possible, and the network is growing.

By all means, give them the tools they need and then some. That should have been done years ago when thought leaders were paying all that lip service to disruption and making up dumb words like “nimbleocity” (nimble + velocity = nimbleocity. I sincerely hope we left that one back in 2014 where it belongs). You know what else should have done 15 years ago? Raising salaries to make public accounting poised to compete with the industries that are now and have been stealing all the would-be accountants away. If you do not fix that, there is no technology that can turn things around.

The post The Accountant Shortage Has Finally Been Figured Out. You’re Not Underpaid, You’re Bored! appeared first on Going Concern.

We haven’t mentioned it before because it’s stupid but “quiet hiring” is one of nine workplace trends for 2023 identified by research firm Gartner and the newest buzz phrase on the block until the next dumb one comes out. All nine are:

These trends really aren’t so terrible when not packaged in dumb buzz phrases and they aren’t new either. Quiet hiring in particular boils down to dumping more work on your existing employees or shuffling them around rather than scouting new talent because it’s too hard to find people these days. Gartner describes it as:

In 2023, savvy HR leaders will turn [quiet quitting] on its head with “quiet hiring” in order to acquire new skills and capabilities without adding new full-time employees. This will manifest in a few key ways:

• A focus on internal talent mobility to ensure employees address the priorities that matter most without changes in headcount
• Stretch and upskilling opportunities for existing employees while meeting evolving organizational needs
• Alternate approaches, such as leveraging alumni networks and gig workers, to flexibly bring in talent only as needed

“With quiet hiring, we’re talking about an organization strategically, at a leadership level, looking at the talent they have across the organization and where the critical gaps are and finding ways to fill those,” she said. “It’s trying to acquire new skills and capabilities without acquiring new people,” said Emily Rose McRae, senior director of research at Gartner, to San Francisco’s ABC7. Yeah, they’ve been doing that for a long time, it just has a stupid name now.

While employers are moving people around and forcing a single person to do the work of two or more (sound familiar, acting seniors who aren’t getting senior pay?), workers are apparently angrily spamming resumes hoping for an exit opportunity that sticks. So the “rage” in “rage quitting” boils down to rage at rising cost of living, flat salaries, and the bullshit that comes with working for companies that suck.

When “rage applying” appeared a few weeks back I was convinced it had to be a troll. Actually I’m still not convinced it isn’t but HR magazines are picking it up so even if it started out as a joke it’s no doubt been absorbed by and instilled fear in HR people everywhere. So what is it exactly?

HR Exchange Network describes it as:

Rage applying is when young employees in professional fields get fed up with the workload, boss, compensation, or all of the above and apply to as many other companies as they can while soaking in their anger. The act of applying to other jobs when one’s morale is low is nothing new. But the term “rage applying” is the latest buzzword to surface in Human Resources as Gen Z and some Millennials grapple with a wide range of disappointments and setbacks.

Many of them began their careers in a pandemic that had people feeling more isolated and forcing them to work from home. As a result, they have not cultivated the kinds of relationships that get people to stay. They might have lacked the mentorship that can fuel a new worker.

Oh fuck off.

In January, CNBC tapped a bunch of “experts” to explain the driving factors behind rage applying and shared this TikTok that raised awareness of it among disenfranchised young people “lacking mentorship” in that viral way popular TikToks do:

@redweez Keep rage applying when youre mad that energy will push you to greater horizons than the job youre stuck in! #work #milennial #worklife ♬ The Sign – Ace of Base

CNBC also introduces us to Chelsea McLin, a young woman who leveraged rage applying to get a $14,000 bump in salary:

Whenever Chelsea McLin was “fed up” with her job — whether it was because she received a passive aggressive email or got more work than she could manage — she would think to herself, “Let me fly somewhere.”

She then applied for a bunch of jobs, sometimes four to five a day, she told CNBC Make It.

“I was just overwhelmed and stressed all the time. I was like, I don’t like the person I am right now. I want to move before I actually hate this job,” said McLin, who was working as a coordinator at a nonprofit organization.

Career coach Jenna Greco told CNBC that the issue is blindly applying to any and everything just to get out of a job you hate.

What makes rage applying different from a typical job search is also the mass application to “any job” that will get workers out of the one they’re in now, said Greco — even if one is clearly unqualified for it.

For example, Chelsea McLin said, she applied to jobs “everywhere” and some of those positions were chosen at “random.”

“There were a lot of tech jobs, project management jobs … I don’t know if I’m qualified, but I might as well put it out there.”

And it worked out for her. What’s the problem?

Said the career coach, if you rage apply to a bunch of jobs you might have to — brace yourselves because this will be shocking — deal with rejection. One might counter this concern by suggesting that if you are spamming resumes, you are less invested in the process and therefore won’t take rejection personally because you know that you aren’t a good fit for the positions you’ve applied for. So it’s not you and your skills that have been rejected but rather the skills and experience you don’t have.

The downside of “spraying your resume out there and seeing what sticks” is having to deal with the possibility of rejection, said Greco.

“The rejection emails wear down your confidence. I saw a TikTok the other day that said, ‘Just got another rejection email from a job I don’t remember applying to at 3am,’” she added.

“Why put yourself in a position to get rejection emails from jobs you don’t even care about or remember applying to? It can fuel more frustration in your current job.”

So? Why stay at a job that has fundamentally changed you as a person and turned you into someone you don’t even recognize?

She added that rage applying is “a very reactive way” to job search, which can be detrimental in the long run.

“You have the potential to jump from the frying pan into the fire. When you haven’t taken the time to really get clear on what you want in your next job and target roles that align with that, you’re just sending out applications hoping the next job will be better,” she said.

“The high that comes from a potential pay bump at another toxic job is going to wear off pretty quickly.”

I repeat: so? Why shouldn’t people take advantage of this hot market while we have it? There is evidence the market is cooling down from the worker side (yes, even in accounting), which is all the more reason to sniff around and see what’s out there before the tables are turned back to employers.

Go forth and rage, kids.

The post OK Now They Are Just Trolling With These ‘Newest Workplace Trend’ Buzz Phrases appeared first on Going Concern.

As CEO of a staffing firm that connects companies with professionals in Mexico, every day I speak with accounting firms, CFOs and other executives looking to hire accountants and other financial professionals in the U.S. The narrative is always similar: They have jobs to fill but they can’t attract the employees they need.

There aren’t enough qualified candidates to fill all open positions.

Just last month, I was contacted by a mid-size CPA firm that had won a slew of new business and was looking to hire 16 auditors and a high-level manager to run the audit team. And they needed this team fast. Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t recruit the talent they needed. They were exasperated by the lack of qualified candidates. What’s more, the applicants they did consider hiring, even entry-level candidates, had salary expectations that often exceeded those of highly experienced staff who have been with the firm for years.

I wish he’d thrown out a number here. From the firm side, entry-level candidates’ salary expectations are too high. From the staff side, highly experienced staff are getting ripped off.

And so, as you probably predicted when you started reading this, Max says firms are seeking out talent where the median salary for an entry level accountant is a smidge lower than what those entitled American Zoomers are asking.

Let’s throw Glassdoor in here too, this is for accountants of all experience levels.

MX$150,000 is $7,908 USD. That works out to about $95k a year. Here’s how it shakes out for entry level accountants south of the border:

And Payscale:

Max, who has no dog in this fight obviously, says that many small and mid-size firms are beginning to look outside the U.S. to solve their staffing needs. We have known about a huge increase in accounting firm outsourcing in the last decade but rarely does Mexico come up in common conversation, mostly India and the Philippines.

Says Max:

The U.S. isn’t the only country in the world with talent. For example, our neighbor to the south is rife with bright, bilingual individuals often with the same (if not better) qualifications as their U.S. counterparts. As of the second quarter of 2022, there were more than 466,000 accountants and auditors in Mexico while the U.S., despite having more than double the population, has just over 665,000 actively licensed CPAs. With a shared border, strong cultural familiarity and other benefits, I’ve noticed many multinational accounting firms have begun to see Mexico as a goldmine for accounting and finance talent.

We want to dig into this and see if Mexico has experienced any of the same pipeline issues we are currently experiencing. We’ve got a call out to Instituto Mexicano de Contadores Públicos, will report back with what we find.

Can Outsourcing Help With The U.S. Accounting Talent Crunch? [Forbes]

The post Accounting Firms Have Begun to See Mexico As a Goldmine for Accounting and Finance Talent, Says Guy appeared first on Going Concern.

Text:

Accounting isn’t just accounting anymore. Experts must perform multiple functions at once — and that’s where the accounting and computer systems major comes in. The median annual salary for people in their early careers is $73,300.

Deb Seigars, seen here, teaches an accounting class at an education center in Portland, Oregon in this 2009 photo.

Ahhh so that’s why, they inexplicably lumped “computer systems” in there. That’s like saying women’s studies and law are a high-paying major. Or performing arts and nuclear engineering.

Carry on.

The post Somehow Accounting Ended Up on This List of the Highest-Paying College Majors in 2022 appeared first on Going Concern.

Why am I bringing up ancient history? Besides needing to hit minimum word count on this, I bring it up because even all these years later, I have a vague recollection of the phone calls I got in 2008 from aspiring CPAs. People from various backgrounds — many of whom were in their 30s or even 40s — who found themselves suddenly out of a job flocked to accounting because it was one of the few industries consistently hiring through the recession (the other being government). Most of them were people who took an accounting class or two in college, decided it wasn’t for them, and did something else with their life. And here they were, the bank breathing down their neck, job prospects nil, throwing away 15 years of work experience because their chosen career was no longer an option. They say accounting is recession-proof, I had an inside view during the worst recession of our lifetime and must agree.

I have no doubt then that accounting firm leaders are eagerly awaiting the next economic dip to solve their critical talent problems. If you wreck it, they will come. As bad as the economy is these days, it’s not “force people into accounting because they have no other options” bad yet.

Wall Street Journal ran a piece on the accountant shortage yesterday and from it we learn that it’s taking much longer to fill accounting positions than it did last year:

A deepening shortage of accountants is driving a growing number of companies to raise salaries or seek temporary help to strengthen their finance teams amid a slowing economy.

Many employers over the past decade have struggled to find qualified workers, a challenge accelerated by a decline in the number of job seekers amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The U.S. labor force has been shrinking since early 2020, as more baby boomers retire.

Companies’ accounting and finance departments in particular, which are crucial for managing financial operations, internal controls and financial reporting, are suffering from the lack of personnel. Fewer people are pursuing degrees in accounting and starting new jobs in this area, resulting in more open positions for related roles and searches that take longer to complete. And digitization and automation aren’t expected to fill the gap.

Look, there’s a chart!

The number of postings for U.S. accounting and audit roles totaled roughly 177,880 jobs this year through Nov. 30, up from 141,340 during the prior-year period and the highest since at least 2008, according to Revelio Labs Inc., a provider of workplace data. People started 113,400 of these positions this year through Nov. 30, down 15.9% from the prior-year period, Revelio said. Audit and accounting jobs on average require 56 days to fill, up from 46 during the prior-year period.

The article goes on to profile a Nevada winemaker struggling to find accounting talent. The salary equation is delicately danced around:

The company is offering higher salaries to candidates for certain positions and turning to temporary workers such as interns, Ms. Johnston said, but declined to provide specifics on pay. “We sweetened the pot a little bit from where the company was originally,” she said.

The problem is that the pot has been sour for too long. “The accounting industry for some reason has just not moved with the rest of the country in terms of offering competitive salaries, and this has been going on for over a decade,” Surgent VP Liz Kolar told Bloomberg Tax earlier this year. Had salaries kept up over the last decade, perhaps things wouldn’t be so dire now. Despite much hand-wringing by thought leaders over why no one wants to be an accountant, the one thing consistently repeated by accountants themselves is: salary. They don’t get paid enough. Period, end of discussion, no further conversation needed. But WSJ has minimum word counts to hit as well so we shall soldier on.

Another company profiled in the WSJ piece says it is using accelerated promotions to create the talent it needs:

GEE used to elevate staff accountants to senior accountants in one to three years and to managers in three to six years, Mr. Thorpe said. Now, those promotions take less time, with Mr. Thorpe pointing to an employee who made it to manager of financial reporting in less than two years.

I’m curious to hear the peanut gallery’s thoughts on that one.

It seems no matter what these companies do, the talent just isn’t there. Small firms are suffering, and we’ve reached the point in the shortage where small potential clients simply can’t find anyone to do the work, no matter the cost. Wait until the large firms have to start turning down work, that will be fun.

That’s OK though. A potential recession could drive more students back into the profession, said Brandi Britton, executive director for finance and accounting at Robert Half to WSJ.

In a downturn, students tend to gravitate toward degrees in accounting and finance because they are considered more stable career paths than, for example, marketing and communications.

There is this belief that a recession will fix things right up a la 2008. The realtors and office managers and bank tellers will come running to accounting, tears streaming down their faces, and accounting will open its arms wide and embrace them with a warm and loving “we’re here for you, there’s work to be done.” But what if reinforcements aren’t coming? What if simply being recession-proof isn’t enough in a post-Covid world where people across all sectors decided there’s more to life than grinding away for a bum paycheck? What if — and call me crazy if I’m out of line here — the baby boomer vacuum we’ve known was coming for decades just can’t be plugged even if we had an abundance of accountants to fill it (which we don’t, obviously)? The work has become increasingly complex since the boomers we need to replace joined the profession all those years ago, a warm body and an amenability to eating shit in your early 20s isn’t enough for the next generation of accounting talent. The profession demands an army of well-spoken, highly tech literate, out-of-the-box thinking young people eager to put these skills to work, has not sufficiently increased pay to justify these demands, and wonders why the individuals it craves are not attracted to accounting. Gee, it’s a real puzzle.

So what happens when a real, brutal recession happens and no one shows up? Is there even a Plan C or is this it? “We’ll be here waiting when you get desperate”? That’s the message we’re going with huh.

Struggling to Find Accountants, Businesses Boost Salary Offers, Hire Temporary Workers [Wall Street Journal]

The post Wall Street Journal Addresses the Accountant Shortage, Suggests a Recession Could Fix It appeared first on Going Concern.

In September, EY announced revenue of $45.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, an increase of 13.7% from prior year and the most year-over-year growth the firm has seen in 20 years. The Americas region specifically brought in revenues of $21.1 billion, up 19% from FY21. “EY has achieved significant growth and continues to operate from a place of strength,” said EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio in the obligatory revenue press release. “We have tremendous momentum right now, and growth means opportunity – for EY people, clients and broader stakeholders.”

So you can understand the disappointment that poured forth when staff heard on Friday that mid-year bonuses would not be coming.

In comments to Financial Times, EY acknowledged that they made a lot of money (YAY EY) but, you know, the economy sucks and all so better to be cautious:

For the past two years, EY US has paid merit bonuses to top performers around this time, on top of the main bonuses awarded at the end of its fiscal year in June, but there would not be funds available for the scheme in 2022, executives said.

“While EY continues to experience strong revenue growth, we have elected at this time not to fund our additional, discretionary mid-year program given the changing economic environment,” EY confirmed in a statement to the Financial Times.

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to being a leader in recognition and rewards. This includes our intention for planned annual performance-based bonuses and ongoing recognition awards,” it said. The mid-year scheme could be resurrected in future years.

Predictably, Redditors at competing firms are offering referrals to any unhappy folks at EY.

Some are assuming the firm is tightening its belt in anticipation of significant one-time costs that will arise should partners vote to move forward with the Project Everest split. A spun-off consulting arm could cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars to get off the ground.

As a reminder, this is what staff heard from up high this past February when EY issued its year-end compensation update (word for word from the email):

• As a result of our strong business performance, we allocated additional funding to our RAC program this year, allowing our partners to recognize more people for their individual performance and contribution. In addition to our RAC program, beginning next year in FY23, we plan to implement a discretionary mid-year recognition bonus program. This program will be separate from our annual PBB and will be funded based on firm performance as of mid-year. This provides an opportunity for our partners to recognize individuals based on their extraordinary performance and contributions throughout the year. We will share more about this program in the months ahead.

• Thanks to our strong year-to-date results and projections through year-end, we anticipate fully funding our PBB program for FY22. And similar to FY22, we expect FY23 compensation increases to be strong, competitive in the markets and aligned with the cost of living. You’ll receive notification of your base salary increase and applicable bonus amounts in your compensation statement on August 5.

*whomp whomp*

The post EY Dumbly Nixes Mid-Year Bonuses appeared first on Going Concern.

In its 2023 salary guide, Hays provides salary ranges for accounting and finance jobs in nine states, plus the District of Columbia. For this article, we selected four positions in audit and four in tax.

Hays has found that despite employees expecting more money to deal with inflation, the rate of which is currently 7.7% for the 12 months ending in October, employers are taking a more conservative approach (because of course they are) and are looking to give out pay increases between 3% and 5% instead of 5% or more in 2023. Hays says:

[Salary] increases have been significant over the past year—more so than predicted. However, there has been a definite shift in the market, as employers take a more cautious approach, we see less aggressive plans to increase salaries when looking ahead.

Companies are taking this stance even though an OVERWHELMING majority (57%) of employees surveyed by Hays said higher salaries is the No. 1 motivator for them to consider leaving their current job, followed by promotional opportunities (24%) and better benefits (19%).

After comparing the salary ranges in Hays’ 2023 salary guide with the ranges it provided for accounting jobs in its 2022 guide, many of those ranges haven’t changed. However, there are positions in some states that are projected to have an increase in base pay next year. For example:

• Audit associates in Colorado are expected to see a raise of between 7.1% and 9.1%.
• In Georgia, audit managers and tax managers are expected to see salaries rise 22.2%, while tax directors are projected to have a bump in pay between 7.1% and 10%. 
• Tax managers and tax directors in California are expected to see pay increases of 56.2% and 33.3%, respectively.
• Salaries are projected to increase between 15.4% and 20% for tax managers in Florida.

Below are the projected pay ranges for the four audit and four tax roles in Hays’ 2023 salary guide. DMV refers to District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia:

Audit associate

• California: $40,000-$60,000
• Colorado: $60,000-$75,000
• DMV: $55,000-$70,000
• Florida: $50,000-$70,000
• Georgia: $50,000-$75,000
• Illinois: $40,000-$60,000
• New York: $55,000-$70,000
• Texas: $55,000-$65,000

Audit senior

• California: $60,000-$100,000
• Colorado: $80,000-$100,000
• DMV: $70,000-$100,000
• Florida: $65,000-$90,000
• Georgia: $65,000-$95,000
• Illinois: $60,000-$90,000
• New York: $70,000-$100,000
• Texas: $75,000-$95,000

Audit manager

• California: $110,000-$150,000
• Colorado: $120,000-$150,000
• DMV: $100,000-$175,000
• Florida: $100,000-$130,000
• Georgia: $110,000-$150,000
• Illinois: $100,000-$130,000
• New York: $100,000-$175,000
• Texas: $115,000-$135,000

Audit director

• California: $150,000-$200,000
• Colorado: $150,000-$200,000
• DMV: $150,000-$250,000
• Florida: $150,000-$200,000
• Georgia: $150,000-$200,000
• Illinois: $150,000-$200,000
• New York: $150,000-$250,000+
• Texas: $150,000-$200,000

Tax accountant

• California: $75,000-$95,000
• Colorado: $70,000-$95,000
• DMV: $75,000-$90,000
• Florida: $50,000-$75,000
• Georgia: $60,000-$75,000
• Illinois: $65,000-$90,000
• New York: $65,000-$90,000
• Texas: $60,000-$80,000

Tax senior

• California: $80,000-$120,000
• Colorado: $80,000-$100,000
• DMV: $70,000-$100,000
• Florida: $70,000-$90,000
• Georgia: $70,000-$100,000
• Illinois: $50,000-$75,000
• New York: $80,000-$110,000
• Texas: $75,000-$90,000

Tax manager

• California: $125,000-$150,000
• Colorado: $100,000-$120,000
• DMV: $100,000-$150,000
• Florida: $120,000-$150,000
• Georgia: $110,000-$155,000
• Illinois: $80,000-$150,000
• New York: $90,000-$160,000
• Texas: $135,000-$165,000

Tax director

• California: $160,000-$200,000
• Colorado: $140,000-$200,000
• DMV: $160,000-$250,000
• Florida: $150,000-$240,000
• Georgia: $150,000-$250,000
• Illinois: $160,000-$210,000
• New York: $140,000-$275,000
• Texas: $180,000-$210,000

You can find all of our content previewing public accounting salaries for 2023 here.

The post How Are Public Accounting Salaries Stacking Up For 2023? (Part 4, Hays U.S.) appeared first on Going Concern.

The data used in this analysis is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities datasets. To determine the best-paying locations for accountants, researchers at Smartest Dollar calculated the median annual wage for accountants, adjusted for cost of living. In the event of a tie, the location with the greater actual median annual wage for accountants was ranked higher. To improve relevance, only metropolitan areas with at least 100,000 residents were included. Additionally, metros were grouped into cohorts based on population size: small (100,000–349,999), midsize (350,000–999,999), and large (1,000,000 or more).

The BLS industry profile describes “accounting” thusly:

43-3031 Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks
Compute, classify, and record numerical data to keep financial records complete. Perform any combination of routine calculating, posting, and verifying duties to obtain primary financial data for use in maintaining accounting records. May also check the accuracy of figures, calculations, and postings pertaining to business transactions recorded by other workers. Excludes “Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks” (43-3051).

Jumping into the data, below you will find the best-paying small and midsize metros for accountants and the full table of crunched data at the bottom.

Let’s say a town of 25,000 people with a crime rate consistently higher than the national average and not much to do (looking at you, Bridgeton) isn’t your style. Have some midsize cities:

The Smartest Dollar list also includes a breakdown on the 15 best-paying large metros for accountants, with the San Jose, CA metro taking the number one spot:

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

• Median annual wage for accountants (adjusted): $89,563
• Median annual wage for accountants (actual): $100,400
• Median annual wage for all business and finance jobs (actual): $100,940
• Concentration of accountants (compared to average): +38%

And last but not least, here is the full list for your scrolling pleasure. Feel free to call the data total bullshit in the comments.

The post Here Is a Massive List of Accounting Salaries Broken Down By City appeared first on Going Concern.

Doritos chose audit senior positions for their research since that tends to be one of hardest to fill roles. If the firm didn’t operate in NYC, then they looked up their salaries for Colorado, which has a similar law in effect, and if they didn’t have posting in either location, they looked up fully remote roles which are included in both NYC and CO transparency laws if the job can be performed by a NYC or CO resident. (I’m sorry, Doritos, I basically just copy pasted what you wrote here. I’m tired ok)

They then conveniently uploaded the results in both crunchy imgur jpg (embedded below) and Google Sheets form:

Here are their notes and observations:

• I assigned compliance grades in column C, based on if they provided salary info and included a reasonable range. About half (12 of 25) of the firms are received an “A” grade, most notably KPMG.

• Firms that provided wide ranges received worse grades. Deloitte’s claim that they might pay an Audit Senior in NYC $58,100 is ridiculous. And PwC’s range of $74k-191k is obviously flouting the “good faith estimate” requirement

• Of the firms that provided reasonable ranges, the highest salary band was CornRedneck CohnReznick at $135,000. Not bad!

• Six of the top 25 firms are openly violating the law. I’ll cut a little slack to Carr Riggs Ingram, who has no physical presence in NYC or CO and probably wasn’t aware that the law applies to remote workers too. RSM, BDO, and Baker Tilly are the three large national firms who are noncompliant and really ought to know better. But the most egregious firm has got to be EisnerAmper, who is headquartered in NYC and has chosen to hide their salaries anyway.

• FORVIS is delusional if they think they’ll find a senior in Denver for $70k

r/accounting has asked them to do the same thing with tax next.

On a related note, the Colorado Sun wrote a long and interesting piece about pay transparency over the summer, the gist of it being only three employers have been fined for non-compliance with the pay transparency law that went into effect on January 1, 2021. The state can issue fines of between $500 and $10,000 per violation.

When the Colorado law first went into effect, some employers were simply excluding Coloradans from their remote jobs to get around the law. The CO Department of Labor put an end to that, hiring a temp to “scour the internet” to find these listings. The state then sent nasty letters to these employers and warned them that they had any presence in Colorado, they must comply with the law or get fined up to $10,000 per violation. This isn’t supposed to be a problem anymore but the site Coloradoexcluded.com maintains a database of job listings that exclude Colorado employees and currently shows 24 companies avoiding hiring in Colorado.

In case you need it, here’s the pay transparency factsheet from the NYC Commission on Human Rights:

NYC Salary Transparency Law Factsheet by Adrienne Gonzalez on Scribd

As of November 1, employers are required to provide salary ranges on job posts in NYC, so I made a list of what the top 25 firms are paying audit seniors. I also noted which firms are breaking the law, including RSM, BDO, and Baker Tilly. [Reddit]

The post Someone Looked Up Audit Senior Salary Ranges at the Top 25 Firms to Catch Them Breaking the New NYC Pay Transparency Law appeared first on Going Concern.

Of the 27 industry jobs we analyzed, 23 have pay that, on average, will likely be higher next year than what LHH predicted for 2022. Of the four roles with base pay that is expected to be lower in 2023, two of them are C-level positions: chief accounting officer and CFO.

In both salary guides, LHH provided salary data for employees in three tiers based on experience:

• Low: Zero to two years of experience in that position or one similar.
• Medium: Three to 10 years of experience in that position or one similar.
• High: Ten or more years of experience in that position or one similar.

Below are the projected base salaries for each of the 27 industry jobs in LHH’s 2023 salary guide, listed by experience, with a comparison of LHH’s 2022 projected salaries (2022 -> 2023) to see which roles’ pay is expected to increase or decrease next year:

Staff accountant

• Low experience: $56,744 -> $57,937 (2.1%)
• Medium experience: $67,061 -> $71,406 (6.5%)
• High experience: $77,378 -> $85,922 (11%)

Average increase: 6.5%

Staff accountant, Big 4 experience

• Low experience: $61,902 -> $70,076 (13.2%)
• Medium experience: $70,156 -> $82,824 (18%)
• High experience: $77,378 -> $95,265 (23.1%)

Average increase: 18.1%

Senior accountant

• Low experience: $77,378 -> $79,107 (2.2%)
• Medium experience: $90,790 -> $96,797 (6.6%)
• High experience: $113,487 -> $126,181 (11.2%)

Average increase: 6.7%

Accounting supervisor

• Low experience: $77,378 -> $76,650 (-0.9%)
• Medium experience: $88,774 -> $87,939 (-0.9%)
• High experience: $110,614 -> $116,487 (5.3%)

Average increase: 1.2%

Accounting manager

• Low experience: $87,695 -> $83,065 (-5.3%)
• Medium experience: $105,233 -> $99,678 (-5.3%)
• High experience: $129,909 -> $137,320 (5.7%)

Average increase: -4.9%

Accounting manager, Big 4 experience

• Low experience: $88,817 -> $104,598 (17.8%)
• Medium experience: $100,716 -> $118,611 (17.8%)
• High experience: $134,282 -> $176,479 (31.4%)

Average increase: 22.3%

Accounting director

• Low experience: $118,646 -> $114,074 (-3.8%)
• Medium experience: $149,597 -> $160,511 (7.3%)
• High experience: $194,893 -> $233,361 (19.7%)

Average increase: 7.7%

Chief accounting officer

• Low experience: $152,693 -> $132,552 (-13,2%)
• Medium experience: $197,024 -> $162,524 (-17.5%)
• High experience: $245,788 -> $192,659 (-21.6%)

Average increase: -17.4%

Chief financial officer

• Low experience: $195,993 -> $193,875 (-1.1%)
• Medium experience: $270,634 -> $254,387 (-6%)
• High experience: $514,248 -> $459,321 (-10.7%)

Average increase: -5.9

Controller

• Low experience: $113,487 -> $116,579 (2.7%)
• Medium experience: $185,706 -> $212,888 (14.6%)
• High experience: $257,925 -> $329,964 (27.9%)

Average increase: 15.1%

Assistant controller

• Low experience: $95,303 -> $94,434 (-0.9%)
• Medium experience: $121,741 -> $134,619 (10.6%)
• High experience: $152,692 -> $188,424 (23.4%)

Average increase: 11%

Cost accountant

• Low experience: $72,219 -> $72,810 (0.8%)
• Medium experience: $77,378 -> $81,354 (5.1%)
• High experience: $82,536 -> $90,496 (9.6%)

Average increase: 5.2%

Senior cost accountant

• Low experience: $87,695 -> $90,882 (3.6%)
• Medium experience: $103,170 -> $111,502 (8.1%)
• High experience: $128,963 -> $145,352 (12.7%)

Average increase: 8.1%

Cost accountant manager

• Low experience: $113,487 -> $112,253 (-1.1%)
• Medium experience: $128,963 -> $142,353 (10.4%)
• High experience: $144,438 -> $177,923 (23.2%)

Average increase: 10.8%

Financial reporting accountant

• Low experience: $77,378 -> $84,461 (9.1%)
• Medium experience: $82,536 -> $93,952 (13.8%)
• High experience: $87,695 -> $104,103 (18.7%)

Average increase: 13.9%

Senior financial reporting accountant

• Low experience: $87,695 -> $84,461 (-3.7%)
• Medium experience: $98,012 -> $98,443 (0.4%)
• High experience: $113,487 -> $118,871 (4.7%)

Average increase: 0.5%

Financial reporting manager

• Low experience: $113,487 -> $113,603 (0.1%)
• Medium experience: $128,963 -> $129,095 (0.1%)
• High experience: $149,597 -> $159,198 (6.4%)

Average increase: 2.2%

Financial reporting director

• Low experience: $180,548 -> $209,745 (16.2%)
• Medium experience: $196,023 -> $254,130 (29.6%)
• High experience: $206,340 -> $298,525 (44.7%)

Average increase: 30.2%

Internal auditor

• Low experience: $61,902 -> $64,623 (4.4%)
• Medium experience: $72,219 -> $78,624 (8.9%)
• High experience: $82,536 -> $93,707 (13.5%)

Average increase: 8.9%

Senior internal auditor

• Low experience: $82,536 -> $87,206 (5.6%)
• Medium experience: $92,853 -> $102,311 (10.2%)
• High experience: $103,170 -> $118,551 (14.9%)

Average increase: 10.2%

Internal audit manager

• Low experience: $94,916 -> $99,399 (4.7%)
• Medium experience: $107,185 -> $112,247 (4.7%)
• High experience: $133,425 -> $145,714 (9.2%)

Average increase: 6.2%

Internal audit director

• Low experience: $110,549 -> $126,146 (14.1%)
• Medium experience: $155,889 -> $185,506 (19%)
• High experience: $178,647 -> $221,698 (24.1%)

Average increase: 19.1%

Vice president of internal audit

• Low experience: $144,438 -> $140,916 (-2.4%)
• Medium experience: $170,231 -> $185,339 (8.9%)
• High experience: $207,875 -> $252,569 (21.5%)

Average increase: 9.3%

Tax accountant

• Low experience: $60,870 -> $67,312 (10.6%)
• Medium experience: $66,029 -> $76,147 (15.3%)
• High experience: $82,279 -> $98,953 (20.3%)

Average increase: 15.4%

Senior tax accountant

• Low experience: $69,124 -> $72,994 (5.6%)
• Medium experience: $85,526 -> $90,314 (5.6%)
• High experience: $111,523 -> $122,814 (10.1%)

Average increase: 7.1%

Tax manager

• Low experience: $98,012 -> $109,161 (11.4%)
• Medium experience: $113,697 -> $126,631 (11.4%)
• High experience: $148,363 -> $184,401 (24.3%)

Average increase: 15.7%

Tax director

• Low experience: $130,380 -> $115,583 (-11.3%)
• Medium experience: $172,126 -> $152,591 (-11.3%)
• High experience: $228,451 -> $226,009 (-1.1%)

Average increase: -7.9%

ICYMI, seven of the 11 public accounting roles highlighted in LHH’s 2023 salary guide are projected to have higher salaries in 2023 than in 2022, with four of those seven expected to have double-digit increases.

You can find all of our content previewing public accounting salaries for 2023 here.

The post Industry Accounting Salary Outlook for 2023 is Not Horrible appeared first on Going Concern.

Sure, guys. Sure.

A Deloitte survey of over 4,000 respondents* found that over half of employees (62%) consider an organisation’s purpose before deciding to join, with over a third (36%) saying that an organisation’s purpose was just as important as their salary and benefits package.

Over a fifth (21%) of respondents stated that purpose had helped them to decide between job offers, indicating that purpose does carry an influence in attracting new talent to an organisation.

The survey found that 84% of respondents valued working somewhere that provided meaningful work. Feeling proud to work for an organisation (83%) also scored highly. Respondents also thought it was important that organisations actively play a role in securing a better future for the next generation (80%).

Regarding that last line, this is why EY is going to have a helluva time recruiting in the next year or two. Current partners are securing their futures, future partners can get bent.

Payal Vasudeva, partner and consulting people & purpose leader at Deloitte, commented: “In a competitive talent market, employees are more attracted to organisations where they can find purpose in the work they do. Looking at these findings, we can see that organisations need to show genuine commitment to purpose if they want to retain and attract employees.”

Maybe that’s true in other industries but no one becomes an accountant to change the world, no matter what Gen Z recruiting initiatives might say.

And as we’ve heard repeatedly over the past twenty years, it’s the young folks that put purpose highest. I guess we’ve just accepted that home ownership is off the table for many of us so might as well feel good about the work we do every now and then?

The survey found that over a third (37%) of 16-44 year olds considered an organisation’s purpose before they applied. In comparison, only 21% of 55-64-year-olds and 24% of 65-75-year-olds had considered an organisation’s purpose before they applied.

Over a quarter (29%) of 16–24-year-olds also said they left their organisation as they felt it was ‘not true’ to its purpose and 17% of this group left their organisation as they didn’t feel aligned to its purpose. In comparison only 8% of 55-64-year-olds and 11% of 65-75-year-olds cited not being true to its purpose as the reason they had left their organisation. Only 4% of those aged 55-75 say they had left an organisation because they did not feel aligned to its purpose.

LOL at high schoolers leaving their job at the drive-thru because they didn’t feel a deep sense of purpose.

Anyway, those are the results. We buying this? Show of hands, how many of you consider ‘purpose’ to be as important as pay when deciding between offers?

The post Another Deloitte Survey Says ‘Purpose’ is Just as Important as Pay (Yeah Right) appeared first on Going Concern.

Believe it or not, the survey revealed that more than half of accounting professionals say they are happy with their pay (if this survey was conducted on r/accounting or on Fishbowl, the results would likely be different):

The workers who are the most unhappy about their pay are educators (39%), entrepreneurs (41%), and social service workers (43%).

Keep in mind, this survey was conducted before KPMG held compensation discussions with employees. Had Klynveldians taken this survey, that 52% for accountants probably would have dropped a percentage point or two.

The post Accountants Don’t Bitch About Their Pay as Much as Workers in Other Professions Do appeared first on Going Concern.

In its 2022 salary guide, Accounting Principals/LHH Recruitment Solutions predicted a 6.4% base salary increase across the board for 11 roles in public accounting. That is not the case for 2023—its salary predictions for next year are all over the place. They range from an average of 7.9% less than 2022 for tax services manager to 17.7% more than 2022 for audit and assurance services manager.

After comparing the recruiting and staffing firm’s 2022 and 2023 salary projections, here are next year’s average base pay increases and decreases for the 11 public accounting positions in the salary guide:

Accounting services

• Associate: 15.5%
• Senior associate: 5.1%

Audit and assurance services

• Associate: 2.8%
• Senior associate: 15.2%
• Manager: 17.7%
• Senior manager: 17.4%

Tax services

• Associate: -2.1%
• Senior associate: -1.2%
• Manager: -7.9%
• Senior manager: 4.3%

Partner

• -4%

Accounting Principals/LHH Recruiting Solutions doesn’t explain why 2023 salaries for tax services are a lot worse than the 2023 salary projections for audit and assurance services. The only thing the company noted in its salary guide is accounting employees with skills that complement firms’ increased use of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and other technological tools “will be more productive and demand higher raises.” It also said demand for accounting positions has been driven by turnover as workers require greater compensation for increasingly large workloads, but you knew that—and are experiencing that—already.

In 2023’s salary guide, Accounting Principals/LHH Recruiting Solutions provided salary data for employees in three tiers based on experience:

• Low: Zero to two years of experience in that position or one similar.
• Medium: Three to 10 years of experience in that position or one similar.
• High: Ten or more years of experience in that position or one similar.

Here are its salary expectations in public accounting for next year:

Below are the average base salaries from the table above for each of the 11 public accounting jobs in the 2023 salary guide, listed by experience, with a comparison of 2022’s projected salaries (2022 -> 2023) to see which roles’ pay is expected to increase or decrease next year:

Accounting services associate

• Low experience: $57,312 -> $63,443 (10.7%)
• Medium experience: $67,124 -> $77,489 (15.4%)
• High experience: $75,784 -> $91,235 (20.4%)

Accounting services senior associate

• Low experience: $62,794 -> $65,051 (3.6%)
• Medium experience: $75,784 -> $78,508 (3.6%)
• High experience: $106,146 -> $114,675 (8%)

Audit/assurance services associate

• Low experience: $57,935 -> $57,087 (-1.5%)
• Medium experience: $70,293 -> $72,233 (2.7%)
• High experience: $80,131 -> $85,871 (7.2%)

Audit/assurance services senior associate

• Low experience: $63,235 -> $71,853 (13.6%)
• Medium experience: $73,662 -> $83,701 (13.6%)
• High experience: $85,102 -> $100,844 (18.5%)

Audit/assurance services manager

• Low experience: $73,662 -> $85,499 (16.1%)
• Medium experience: $97,460 -> $113,121 (16.1%)
• High experience: $110,415 -> $133,650 (21%)

Audit/assurance services senior manager

• Low experience: $90,982 -> $98,771 (8.6%)
• Medium experience: $99,884 -> $125,492 (25.6%)
• High experience: $118,018 -> $139,339 (18.1%)

Tax services associate

• Low experience: $53,631 -> $52,930 (-1.3%)
• Medium experience: $59,763 -> $58,982 (-1.3%)
• High experience: $71,125 -> $68,390 (-3.8%)

Tax services senior associate

• Low experience: $75,784 -> $76,862 (1.4%)
• Medium experience: $87,691 -> $86,650 (-1.2%)
• High experience: $93,095 -> $89,624 (-3.7%)

Tax services manager

• Low experience: $94,203 -> $89,405 (-5.1%)
• Medium experience: $110,432 -> $104,808 (-5.1%)
• High experience: $151,567 -> $131,059 (-13.5%)

Tax services senior manager

• Low experience: $98,525 -> $105,428 (7%)
• Medium experience: $120,183 -> $125,296 (4.2%)
• High experience: $151,567 -> $153,950 (1.6%)

Partner

• Low experience: $153,732 -> $155,063 (0.9%)
• Medium experience: $230,362 -> $220,793 (-4.1%)
• High experience: $345,378 -> $314,557 (-8.9%)

You can find all of our content previewing public accounting salaries for 2023 here.

The post How Are Public Accounting Salaries Stacking Up For 2023? (Part 3, Accounting Principals/LHH Recruitment Solutions) appeared first on Going Concern.

Randstad has 2023 salary projections for 23 roles under the Accounting category, 13 under Banking, eight under Executive, eight under Finance, four under Internal Audit, two under Procurement/Purchasing, three under Tax, and three under Treasury. For this post, we’re highlighting projected 2023 salaries for four accounting jobs and three tax jobs, and comparing them to what Randstad thought the salaries for those seven roles would be in 2022 to see if pay is expected to go up or down next year.

Pay data is presented under three ranges—low, mid, and high (last year it was entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level)—to accommodate employees’ varying experience, expertise, time in a specific role, and market demand, according to Randstad.

Randstad’s PR machine put out a press release promoting the salary guide with the headline of “Salaries in Finance & Accounting on the Rise.” Are they tho? For almost all of the seven jobs we highlighted below, yes, salaries are expected to increase next year. The only holdouts are for junior accountant (all three pay ranges are projected to be lower in 2023 than 2022) and staff accountant (2023 projections are lower in the “mid” and “high” pay ranges than in 2022).

Note: Robert Half’s salary guide predicts starting salaries in accounting and finance for 2023; Randstad projects non-starting pay ranges for employees in those roles. Another difference between the two guides: Bob includes pay data for eight roles specifically for public accounting (four in audit and four in tax). Randstad doesn’t have a Public Accounting category, so we had to pick and choose the seven roles we wanted to spotlight in this post. The 2023 salary data for these seven jobs might be helpful to those of you working in PA now who are planning to make the jump to industry next year or for accounting students who are curious about the salary expectations for these roles.

Enough blabbing, here they are:

Accounting manager

Low level

2023: $108,388 – $119,797
2022: $72,480 – $92,512

Mid level

2023: $121,859 – $134,686
2022: $92,512 – $120,032

High level

2023: $134,124 – $148,243
2022: $120,032 – $160,096

Junior accountant

Low level

2023: $55,825 – $61,701
2022: $61,240 – $73,437

Mid level

2023: $61,477 – $67,948
2022: $73,437 – $81,224

High level

2023: $66,606 – $73,617
2022: $81,224 – $90,555

Senior accountant

Low level

2023: $82,759 – $91,470
2022: $66,846 – $79,199

Mid level

2023: $99,398 – $109,860
2022: $79,199 – $90,161

High level

2023: $119,274 – $131,829
2022: $90,161 – $103,199

Staff accountant

Low level

2023: $64,885 – $71,715
2022: $61,240 – $73,437

Mid level

2023: $71,725 – $79,275
2022: $73,437 – $81,224

High level

2023: $77,952 – $86,157
2022: $81,224 – $97,531

Tax director

Low level

2023: $150,738 – $166,604
2022: $139,694 – $184,422

Mid level

2023: $190,641 – $210,709
2022: $147,698 – $194,989

High level

2023: $238,464 – $263,566
2022: $155,729 – $205,593

Tax accountant

Low level

2023: $66,871 – $73,910
2022: $63,448 – $77,006

Mid level

2023: $80,896 – $89,412
2022: $77,006 – $87,118

High level

2023: $94,560 – $104,514
2022: $87,118 – $100,000

Tax manager

Low level

2023: 123,884 – $136,924
2022: $94,306 – $115,842

Mid level

2023: $144,120 – $159,290
2022: $115,842 – $132,708

High level

2023: $170,616 – $188,575
2022: $132,708 – $152,341

Several big metropolises are projected to have salaries for these accounting and tax positions three to six times higher than the national averages. Here are the cities with double-digit salary variances on the plus side:

• San Francisco: 64.8%
• Los Angeles: 57.6%
• Stamford, CT: 45%
• San Diego: 42.2%
• New York City: 37.2%
• Boston: 34.5%
• Washington, DC: 31.3%
• Providence, RI: 27.7%
• Seattle: 22.6%
• Portland, OR: 21.1%
• Baltimore: 17.4%
• Philadelphia: 17%
• Wilmington, DE: 17%
• Denver: 15.3%
• Miami/Fort Lauderdale: 10.8%

Cities projected to have single-digit salary increases over the national averages next year include:

• Las Vegas: 9.5%
• Milwaukee: 7.4%
• Phoenix: 7%
• Minneapolis: 4.5%
• Salt Lake City: 4.4%
• Richmond, VA: 3.9%
• Pittsburgh: 3%
• Tampa: 3%
• Chicago: 2.5%

And then there are cities like Kansas City, MO, and Atlanta that have salaries projected to be below the national rates:

• Little Rock, AR: -8%
• Kansas City, MO: -6.1%
• Toledo, OH: -5.8%
• Columbus, OH: -5.1%
• Atlanta: -4.1%
• Nashville: -4.1%
• Austin, TX: -3.4%
• Cincinnati: -3.2%
• Cleveland: -3.1%
• Houston: -3.1%
• Louisville: -2.9%
• Raleigh, NC: -2.9%
• San Antonio: -2.2%
• St. Louis: -2.1%
• Charlotte: -1.7%
• Indianapolis: -1.9
• Dallas: -1.2%

Randstad found that the most in-demand jobs in accounting and finance are: accounting manager, controller, financial analyst, payroll coordinator/clerk, and staff accountant.

The post How Are Public Accounting Salaries Stacking Up For 2023? (Part 2, Randstad) appeared first on Going Concern.

Using the “find your local salaries” tool in the salary guide, we tried to find as many LCOL cities as possible with a large public accounting firm presence (Big 4, national, and/or regional) that have starting salaries projected to be higher than the national average. It was a tough task, but we found 10 of them!

We compared the 2023 average starting salaries for each of those 10 cities with the national average starting salaries for public accounting (2023 national average -> the average for that city by percentile per position). In its 2023 salary guide, Robert Half provided starting pay data for eight positions within PA: four in tax services and four in audit and assurance services.

If you’re thinking, “What do they mean ‘by percentile?’” Bob Half provides starting salaries in its guide for three percentiles based on employee experience. Those percentiles are:

• 25th percentile: New to the role, with little to no experience; requires more than casual instruction or supervision to perform day-to-day duties.
• 50th percentile: Has the experience to consistently perform core responsibilities without direct supervision; very comfortable with processes and subject matter associated with the role.
• 75th percentile: Value to the organization goes far beyond the ability to perform normal job duties; has rare qualifications that enable consistent contribution in unique ways; ready for next career level when available.

If you’re expecting to see cities like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or Cleveland or Columbus in Ohio, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Detroit, Louisville, Milwaukee, Birmingham, Sioux Falls, and Oklahoma City, they are all expected to have PA starting salaries either lower than or equal to the national averages in 2023. But the starting salaries in these 10 cities are projected to be higher, ranging from 0.5% to 14%:

1. Hartford, CT

Salaries in Hartford are 14% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $135,090
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $166,725
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $200,355

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $105,735
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $128,535
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $149,340

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $74,385
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $89,490
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $103,170

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $58,425
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $71,820
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $82,935

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $133,095
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $164,730
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $190,950

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $91,200
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $114,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $129,960

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $65,265
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $82,080
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $93,480

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $55,290
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $68,115
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $78,375

2. Salt Lake City

Salaries in Salt Lake City are 8% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $127,980
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $157,950
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $189,810

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $100,170
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $121,770
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $141,480

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $70,470
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $84,780
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $97,740

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $55,350
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $68,040
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $78,570

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $126,090
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $156,060
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $180,900

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $86,400
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $108,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $123,120

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $61,830
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $77,760
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $88,560

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $52,380
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $64,530
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $74,250

3. Tucson, AZ

Salaries in Tucson are 7% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $126,795
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $156,488
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $188,053

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $99,243
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $120,643
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $140,170

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $69,818
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $83,995
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $96,835

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $54,838
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $67,410
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $77,843

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $124,923
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $154,615
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $179,225

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $85,600
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $107,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $121,980

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $61,258
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $77,040
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $87,740

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $51,895
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $63,933
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $73,563

4. Baltimore

Salaries in Baltimore are 4% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $123,240
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $152,100
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $182,780

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $96,460
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $117,260
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $136,240

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $67,860
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $81,640
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $94,120

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $53,300
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $65,520
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $75,660

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $121,420
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $150,280
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $174,200

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $83,200
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $104,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $118,560

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $59,540
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $74,880
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $85,280

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $50,440
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $62,140
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $71,500

5. Charlotte, NC
6. Raleigh, NC

Salaries in Charlotte and Raleigh are 3.5% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $122,648
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $151,369
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $181,901

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $95,996
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $116,696
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $135,585

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $67,534
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $81,248
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $93,668

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $53,044
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $65,205
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $75,296

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $120,836
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $149,558
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $173,363

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $82,800
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $103,500
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $117,990

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $59,254
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $74,520
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $84,870

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $50,198
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $61,841
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $71,156

7. Tampa, FL

Salaries in Tampa are 2% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $120,870
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $149,175
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $179,265

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $94,605
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $115,005
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $133,620

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $66,555
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $80,070
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $92,310

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $52,275
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $64,260
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $74,205

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $119,085
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $147,390
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $170,850

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $81,600
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $102,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $116,280

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $58,395
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $73,440
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $83,640

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $49,470
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $60,945
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $70,125

8. Providence, RI

Salaries in Providence are 1.5% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $120,278
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $148,444
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $178,386

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $94,141
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $114,441
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $132,965

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $66,229
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $79,678
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $91,858

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $52,019
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $63,945
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $73,841

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $118,501
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $146,668
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $170,013

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $81,200
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $101,500
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $115,710

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $58,109
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $73,080
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $83,230

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $49,228
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $60,646
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $69,781

9. San Antonio

Salaries in San Antonio are 1% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $119,685
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $147,713
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $177,508

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $93,678
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $113,878
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $132,310

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $65,903
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $79,285
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $91,405

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $51,763
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $63,630
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $73,478

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $117,918
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $145,945
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $169,175

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $80,800
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $101,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $115,140

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $57,823
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $72,720
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $82,820

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $48,985
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $60,348
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $69,438

10. St. Louis

Salaries in St. Louis are 0.5% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $119,093
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $146,981
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $176,629

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $93,214
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $113,314
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $131,655

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $65,576
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $78,893
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $90,953

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $51,506
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $63,315
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $73,114

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $117,334
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $145,223
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $168,338

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $80,400
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $100,500
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $114,570

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $57,536
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $72,360
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $82,410

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $48,743
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $60,049
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $69,094

You can find all of our posts about the 2023 Robert Half Accounting & Salary Guide here.

The post These 10 LCOL Cities Are Expected to Have Higher-Than-Average Public Accounting Starting Salaries in 2023 appeared first on Going Concern.

What about cities that have a middle cost of living? What are their starting salary expectations for next year? Well, if you work/live in Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville, Dallas, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Omaha, and Miami, you’re in luck! Those 12 cities are the focus of this post.

By using the “find your local salaries” feature in the salary guide, we were able to find the 2023 average starting salaries for each city and compared them with the national average starting salaries for public accounting (2023 national average -> the average for that city by percentile per position). In its 2023 salary guide, Robert Half provided starting pay data for eight positions within PA: four in tax services and four in audit and assurance services.

Reminder: Robert Half provides starting salaries for three percentiles based on employee experience. Those percentiles are:

• 25th percentile: New to the role, with little to no experience; requires more than casual instruction or supervision to perform day-to-day duties.
• 50th percentile: Has the experience to consistently perform core responsibilities without direct supervision; very comfortable with processes and subject matter associated with the role.
• 75th percentile: Value to the organization goes far beyond the ability to perform normal job duties; has rare qualifications that enable consistent contribution in unique ways; ready for next career level when available.

The Windy City saw the biggest projected starting salary increase compared to the national averages, while six others are expected to have double-digit increases next year. One city, though, is expected to have starting salaries in public accounting below the national averages.

Here are the 2023 public accounting starting salary comparisons for those 12 MCOL cities:

1. Chicago

Salaries in Chicago are 24% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $146,940
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $181,350
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $217,930

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $115,010
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $139,810
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $162,440

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $80,910
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $97,340
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $112,220

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $63,550
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $78,120
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $90,210

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $144,770
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $179,180
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $207,700

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $99,200
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $124,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $141,360

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $70,990
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $89,280
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $101,680

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $60,140
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $74,090
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $85,250

2. Philadelphia

Salaries in Philadelphia are 18% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $139,830
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $172,575
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $207,385

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $109,445
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $133,045
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $154,580

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $76,995
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $92,630
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $106,790

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $60,475
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $74,340
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $85,845

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $137,765
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $170,510
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $197,650

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $94,400
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $118,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $134,520

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $67,555
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $84,960
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $96,760

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $57,230
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $70,505
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $81,125

3. Denver

Salaries in Denver are 17% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $138,645
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $171,113
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $205,628

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $108,518
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $131,918
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $153,270

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $76,343
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $91,845
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $105,885

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $59,963
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $73,710
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $85,118

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $136,598
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $169,065
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $195,975

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $93,600
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $117,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $133,380

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $66,983
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $84,240
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $95,940

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $56,745
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $69,908
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $80,438

4. Dallas

Salaries in Dallas are 12% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $132,720
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $163,800
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $196,840

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $103,880
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $126,280
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $146,720

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $73,080
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $87,920
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $101,360

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $57,400
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $70,560
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $81,480

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $130,760
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $161,840
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $187,600

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $89,600
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $112,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $127,680

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $64,120
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $80,640
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $91,840

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $54,320
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $66,920
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $77,000

5. Portland, OR

Salaries in Portland are 11% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $131,535
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $162,338
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $195,083

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $102,953
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $125,153
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $145,410

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $72,428
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $87,135
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $100,455

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $56,888
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $69,930
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $80,753

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $129,593
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $160,395
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $185,925

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $88,800
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $111,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $126,540

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $63,548
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $79,920
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $91,020

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $53,835
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $66,323
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $76,313

6. Phoenix
7. Miami

Salaries in Phoenix and Miami are 10% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $130,350
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $160,875
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $193,325

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $102,025
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $124,025
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $144,100

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $71,775
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $86,350
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $99,550

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $56,375
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $69,300
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $80,025

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $128,425
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $158,950
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $184,250

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $88,000
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $110,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $125,400

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $62,975
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $79,200
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $90,200

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $53,350
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $65,725
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $75,625

8. Atlanta

Salaries in Atlanta are 7.5% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $127,388
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $157,219
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $188,931

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $99,706
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $121,206
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $140,825

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $70,144
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $84,388
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $97,288

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $55,094
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $67,725
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $78,206

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $125,506
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $155,338
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $180,063

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $86,000
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $107,500
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $122,550

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $61,544
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $77,400
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $88,150

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $52,138
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $64,231
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $73,906

9. Minneapolis

Salaries in Minneapolis are 7% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $126,795
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $156,488
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $188,053

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $99,243
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $120,643
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $140,170

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $69,818
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $83,995
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $96,835

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $54,838
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $67,410
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $77,843

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $124,923
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $154,615
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $179,225

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $85,600
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $107,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $121,980

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $61,258
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $77,040
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $87,740

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $51,895
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $63,933
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $73,563

10. Las Vegas

Salaries in Las Vegas are 6% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $125,610
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $155,025
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $186,295

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $98,315
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $119,515
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $138,860

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $69,165
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $83,210
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $95,930

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $54,325
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $66,780
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $77,115

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $123,755
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $153,170
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $177,550

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $84,800
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $106,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $120,840

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $60,685
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $76,320
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $86,920

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $51,410
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $63,335
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $72,875

11. Nashville

Salaries in Nashville are 2% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $120,870
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $149,175
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $179,265

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $94,605
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $115,005
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $133,620

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $66,555
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $80,070
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $92,310

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $52,275
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $64,260
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $74,205

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $119,085
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $147,390
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $170,850

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $81,600
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $102,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $116,280

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $58,395
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $73,440
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $83,640

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $49,470
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $60,945
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $70,125

12. Omaha

Salaries in Omaha are 3% lower than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $114,945
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $141,863
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $170,478

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $89,968
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $109,368
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $127,070

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $63,293
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $76,145
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $87,785

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $49,713
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $61,110
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $70,568

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $113,248
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $140,165
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $162,475

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $77,600
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $97,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $110,580

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $55,533
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $69,840
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $79,540

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $47,045
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $57,958
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $66,688

Next week, we’ll take a look at 2023 public accounting starting salary comparisons for several low cost-of-living cities.

Related articles:

How Are Public Accounting Salaries Stacking Up For 2023? (Part 1, Robert Half)
Here Are the Projected 2023 Public Accounting Starting Salaries in Eight HCOL Cities

The post Let’s Take a Look at the Projected 2023 Public Accounting Starting Salaries in 12 MCOL Cities appeared first on Going Concern.

Last year around this time we looked at how public accounting starting salaries in five cities with the highest cost of living—San Francisco, New York City, Washington, DC, Boston, and Seattle—compared to the projected national averages for 2022. We’re going to do the same for 2023’s starting salary projections from Robert Half, and we included three additional HCOL cities (all in California) to the five we featured last year: San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

By using the “find your local salaries” feature in the salary guide, we were able to find the 2023 average starting salaries for each city and compared them with the national average starting salaries for public accounting (2023 national average -> the average for that city by percentile per position). In its 2023 salary guide, Robert Half provided starting pay data for eight positions within PA: four in tax services and four in audit and assurance services.

As in previous years, Robert Half provides starting pay data for three percentiles based on employee experience. Those percentiles are:

• 25th percentile: New to the role, with little to no experience; requires more than casual instruction or supervision to perform day-to-day duties.
• 50th percentile: Has the experience to consistently perform core responsibilities without direct supervision; very comfortable with processes and subject matter associated with the role.
• 75th percentile: Value to the organization goes far beyond the ability to perform normal job duties; has rare qualifications that enable consistent contribution in unique ways; ready for next career level when available.

Here are the 2023 public accounting starting salary comparisons for those eight HCOL cities:

1. New York City

Salaries in New York City are 38% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $163,530
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $201,825
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $242,535

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $127,995
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $155,595
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $180,780

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $90,045
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $108,330
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $124,890

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $70,725
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $86,940
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $100,395

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $161,115
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $199,410
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $231,150

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $110,400
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $138,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $157,320

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $79,005
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $99,360
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $113,160

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $66,930
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $82,455
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $94,875

2. San Francisco

Salaries in San Francisco are 35% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $159,975
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $197,438
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $237,263

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $125,213
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $152,213
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $176,850

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $88,088
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $105,975
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $122,175

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $69,188
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $85,050
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $98,213

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $157,613
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $195,075
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $226,125

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $108,000
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $135,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $153,900

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $77,288
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $97,200
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $110,700

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $65,475
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $80,663
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $92,813

3. Washington, DC
4. Boston

Salaries in Washington, DC and Boston are 33% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $157,605
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $194,513
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $233,748

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $123,358
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $149,958
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $174,230

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $86,783
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $104,405
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $120,365

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $68,163
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $83,790
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $96,758

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $155,278
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $192,185
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $222,775

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $106,400
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $133,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $151,620

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $76,143
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $95,760
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $109,060

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $64,505
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $79,468
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $91,438

5. San Jose, CA

Salaries in San Jose are 32% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $156,420
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $193,050
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $231,990

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $122,430
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $148,830
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $172,920

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $86,130
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $103,620
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $119,460

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $67,650
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $83,160
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $96,030

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $154,110
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $190,740
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $221,100

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $105,600
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $132,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $150,480

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $75,570
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $95,040
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $108,240

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $64,020
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $78,870
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $90,750

6. Los Angeles

Salaries in Los Angeles are 31% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $155,235
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $191,588
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $230,233

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $121,503
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $147,703
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $171,610

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $85,478
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $102,835
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $118,555

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $67,138
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $82,530
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $95,303

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $152,943
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $189,295
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $219,425

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $104,800
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $131,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $149,340

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $74,998
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $94,320
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $107,420

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $63,535
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $78,273
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $90,063

7. Seattle

Salaries in Seattle are 29% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $152,865
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $188,663
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $226,718

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $119,648
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $145,448
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $168,990

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $84,173
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $101,265
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $116,745

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $66,113
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $81,270
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $93,848

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $150,608
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $186,405
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $216,075

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $103,200
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $129,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $147,060

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $73,853
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $92,880
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $105,780

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $62,565
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $77,078
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $88,688

8. San Diego

Salaries in San Diego are 23% higher than the national average.

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $118,500 -> $145,755
• 50th percentile: $146,250 -> $179,888
• 75th percentile: $175,750 -> $216,173

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $92,750 -> $114,083
• 50th percentile: $112,750 -> $138,683
• 75th percentile: $131,000 -> $161,130

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $65,250 -> $80,258
• 50th percentile: $78,500 -> $96,555
• 75th percentile: $90,500 -> $111,315

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $51,250 -> $63,038
• 50th percentile: $63,000 -> $77,490
• 75th percentile: $72,750 -> $89,483

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $116,750 -> $143,603
• 50th percentile: $144,500 -> $177,735
• 75th percentile: $167,500 -> $206,025

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $80,000 -> $98,400
• 50th percentile: $100,000 -> $123,000
• 75th percentile: $114,000 -> $140,220

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $57,250 -> $70,418
• 50th percentile: $72,000 -> $88,560
• 75th percentile: $82,000 -> $100,860

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $48,500 -> $59,655
• 50th percentile: $59,750 -> $73,493
• 75th percentile: $68,750 -> $84,563

Next up, we’ll take a look at 2023 public accounting starting salary comparisons for several middle cost-of-living cities.

Related articles:

How Are Public Accounting Salaries Stacking Up For 2023? (Part 1, Robert Half)
2022 Projected Public Accounting Salaries In Five HCOL Cities

The post Here Are the Projected 2023 Public Accounting Starting Salaries in Eight HCOL Cities appeared first on Going Concern.

The staffing and recruiting giant released its 2023 Accounting & Finance Salary Guide on Monday, which includes starting salary expectations for jobs in 35 categories, including public accounting. In the public accounting category, Robert Half provided 2023 starting salary projections for four roles in tax services and four roles in audit and assurance services.

Like in previous years, Bob breaks down starting pay ranges by percentile, based on a candidate’s experience. For 2023, there are three salary percentiles with the following descriptions:

• 25th percentile: New to the role, with little to no experience; requires more than casual instruction or supervision to perform day-to-day duties.
• 50th percentile: Has the experience to consistently perform core responsibilities without direct supervision; very comfortable with processes and subject matter associated with the role.
• 75th percentile: Value to the organization goes far beyond the ability to perform normal job duties; has rare qualifications that enable consistent contribution in unique ways; ready for next career level when available.

So without further ado, here are the starting salary projections in public accounting for 2023. Then we’ll take a look at how these projections compare to Robert Half’s starting salary predictions for 2022:

Robert Half expected starting salaries for these eight positions to increase between only 1.4% and 2.6% for 2022. For 2023, starting pay for these eight roles is expected to increase between 2.3% and 5.8%. Better than 2022 but still underwhelming, right?

Tax services

• Senior manager/director: 3.4%
• Manager: 2.3%
• Senior tax associate: 3.9%
• Tax associate: 2.7%

Audit and assurance services

• Senior manager/managing director: 3.4%
• Manager: 3.7%
• Senior associate: 4.3%
• Associate: 5.8%

Here again are the starting salaries for each of the eight public accounting roles in the 2023 salary guide, listed by percentile, compared with 2022’s starting salary projections from Robert Half (2022 -> 2023) so we can see how big the pay increases are expected to be by position and by percentile (in parenthesis):

Senior manager/director tax services

• 25th percentile: $114,500 -> $118,500 (3.5%)
• 50th percentile: $141,500 -> $146,250 (3.3%)
• 75th percentile: $170,000 -> $175,750 (3.4%)

Manager of tax services

• 25th percentile: $90,750 -> $92,750 (2.2%)
• 50th percentile: $110,000 -> $112,750 (2.5%)
• 75th percentile: $128,000 -> $131,000 (2.3%)

Senior tax associate

• 25th percentile: $62,500 -> $65,250 (4.4%)
• 50th percentile: $75,500 -> $78,500 (4%)
• 75th percentile: $87,500 -> $90,500 (3.4%)

Tax associate

• 25th percentile: $49,750 -> $51,250 (3%)
• 50th percentile: $61,500 -> $63,000 (2.4%)
• 75th percentile: $70,750 -> $72,750 (2.8%)

Senior manager/managing director, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $113,000 -> $116,750 (3.3%)
• 50th percentile: $139,750 -> $144,500 (3.4%)
• 75th percentile: $162,000 -> $167,500 (3.4%)

Manager, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $77,000 -> $80,000 (3.9%)
• 50th percentile: $96,250 -> $100,000 (3.9%)
• 75th percentile: $110,250 -> $114,000 (3.4%)

Senior associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $55,000 -> $57,250 (4,1%)
• 50th percentile: $68,750 -> $72,000 (4.7%)
• 75th percentile: $78,750 -> $82,000 (4.1%)

Associate, audit and assurance services

• 25th percentile: $46,000 -> $48,500 (5.4%)
• 50th percentile: $56,750 -> $59,750 (5.3%)
• 75th percentile: $64,500 -> $68,750 (6.6%)

Upcoming: We’ll take a look at what public accounting starting salaries are expected to be like in several HCOL, MCOL, and LCOL cities for 2023.

Related article:

How Are Public Accounting Salaries Stacking Up For 2022? (Part 1, Robert Half)

The post How Are Public Accounting Salaries Stacking Up For 2023? (Part 1, Robert Half) appeared first on Going Concern.

Let’s talk about starting salaries in public accounting.

Let’s assume a student has an undergraduate accounting degree, a MAcc degree, and has passed all 4 sections of CPA exam.

What do we think is a fair starting salary? #Accounting

— Dr. Josh McGowan, CPA (@Jmcgowan3838) September 19, 2022

Starting salaries in #accounting have gone from B school leaders to laggards. 1st year auditors today barely make more than an auditor who started in 2011 in nominal dollars and less in real dollars. The daily hours + 30 more credits + CPA demand fair compensation. $55K isn’t it. https://t.co/9Lc2hzELev

— Jack Castonguay, PhD, CPA (@profjackc) September 19, 2022

Well? Throw some numbers out. Original Twitter thread here.

The post How Much Should Public Accounting Starting Salaries Be to Make Public Accounting Starting Salaries Less Awful? appeared first on Going Concern.

Fortune writes:

“The new EMEA Banking Analytics Group will offer improved work-life balance to attract top talent that may not ordinarily consider a career in investment banking, which will both broaden and enhance the diversity of the bank’s talent pool,” the bank said in announcing the program.

The program received over 3,000 applications, according to data that Citi shared with Fortune, with applicants coming from every market in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, along with others from Asia and the Americas.

The program’s inaugural cohort has 27 analysts representing 22 nationalities and 15 languages, including English. They’re primarily recent college graduates between 22 and 26 years old. The group is split 59% male and 41% female.

Although program participants will make about half as much as their peers who are not working at the beach, they’ll still be expected to log eight-hour days. Considering their peers can easily clock 100 hours in a week, forty doesn’t sound bad at all.

The driving force behind the program is, of course, retention. Turns out young people aren’t that into working themselves to the bone, even if it means a better salary. Citi hopes the more laid-back program will attract people who would otherwise say “hell no” to banking’s grueling hours.

The hub’s launch comes as executives worry that talented individuals are opting not to pursue banking due to fears about overwork.

“Low levels of junior banker retention are being seen across the industry, and the message is clear: The key driver behind many junior-level departures is the search for a better work-life balance,” said Manolo Falcó, Citi’s global cohead of banking, capital markets, and advisory, in a press release.

The group will focus on the industries Citigroup believes are the fastest-growing — including technology, sustainability and health and wellness — and support investment-banking teams in Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan and Paris, said Bloomberg.

So what say you? Would you take a pay cut to work a regular 40-hour week? Would you trust your firm to stick to the deal and not work you like a dog? Would you worry your career might suffer because you aren’t in the trenches clocking crazy hours like your colleagues?

The post Would You Take a Pay Cut in Exchange For a 40-Hour Workweek in a Beachside Locale? appeared first on Going Concern.

Here’s the TikTok that inspired such dramatics:

@gowokegobrokeaus Tell me how it makes sense #big4 #deloitte #fyp #graduate #work #commentator #corporatelife #corporate ♬ original sound – Go Woke Go Broke

“So graduates apparently earn around $65,000 a year which is a fine graduate salary for a normal job but working at a big four consulting firm is not a normal job. They demand to basically devote your life to them,” she says. “They make their graduates work 12-14 hours a day and they’re paying them what, $65,000? It’s an absolute joke. It’s modern day slavery. They bill these graduates out at $200, $300 an hour and how much do they pay them, $20 an hour? Tell me, how it makes sense? This is why I hate big business and why people are flocking away from large corporations in record numbers because they’ve realize they are getting absolutely rorted.”

Maybe it’s because I’m old (or American?) but I had to look ‘rorted‘ up. No shame.

Ah, I get it.

As of publication, there are more than 2000 comments on her original TikTok.

The post Word Hits TikTok That Big 4 Firms Are Cheap Bastards, “It’s Modern Day Slavery” appeared first on Going Concern.

The survey goes on to say:

The average starting salary for recent graduates is $55,260, but students expect to earn almost double that — $103,880 — one year out of college. That’s nearly $46,000 more than they expected to make just three years ago.

Graduates may be in for a rude awakening: More than half (58%) say the average starting salary of $55,260 isn’t as high as they expected, with nearly 1 in 5 (18%) saying it’s much lower than expected.

Unrealistic salary expectations also extend to mid-career earnings. Ten years into their careers, students anticipate making $200,270 — a 93% increase from their starting salary expectations.

Data shows salaries do tend to double by mid-career in many industries, but $200,270 is more than most students can hope to earn in reality: The average mid-career salary is only $132,497.

As a reminder, the average starting salary for accounting undergrads in 2021 was projected to be $58,508.

Related article:

$58,508: The Average Starting Salary for New Accounting Grads

The post Number of the Day: $103,880 appeared first on Going Concern.

Deloitte Australia chief executive Adam Powick has revealed the minimum pay rates for the firm’s audit and consulting divisions as part of a strategy to be more transparent with staff and attract more skilled professionals.

In consulting, the minimum pay rates for Deloitte will start at $67,000 (US$46.3k) for graduates in 2023, $75,000 for a consultant, $125,000 for a manager, $190,000 for a director and $220,000 for a principal.

Directors and principals are also in line to earn “contractual bonuses” typically worth between 10 and 20 per cent of their annual pay. Principals are senior staff members who are specialists in their area.

“We believe that openness and transparency are key to building the trust of our people and also of our profession externally,” said Powick.

PwC and KPMG have also provided salary data while EY has chosen not to though they did provide some limited salary data internally. That salary data then ended up in AFR’s hands anyway which resulted in a former EY partner saying the rates were “disturbingly low.” Overly critical ex-partners aside, recruiters told AFR they believed EY’s rates were competitive and generally above market.

Here’s the full table of Deloitte Australia salaries put together by AFR:

Source: Financial Review

Powick told AFR that this kind of transparency “helps drive more equitable outcomes and is an important factor in addressing challenges like gender pay equity.” Deloitte’s overall gender pay gap was 12.6% at the end of last year. The gap differed by division, with a 2.2% gap in assurance and advisory and a 15.9% gap in consulting.

Deloitte reveals minimum pay rates (managers start at $125,000) [Australian Financial Review]

The post Here’s How Much Auditors and Consultants at Deloitte Australia Make appeared first on Going Concern.

Despite their longtime presence in the traditional CPA compensation package, bonuses are being abandoned in some firms, notes Adele Harraway, managing partner, Canadian Accounting Consultants, which specializes in CPA recruitment. Instead, firms are upping the starting salary to entice candidates. This is in line with the results of a CPA Canada poll, where members ranked salary as the top benefit that would affect their decision to accept a new job.

“Salary increases have not kept up with inflation with many companies capping increases at five per cent, often resulting in people having to leave to get an increase,” says Harraway. “As a result, companies are getting more creative in their recruitment efforts by upping the base salaries to above the market average.”

And firms with generous WFH policies might get away with paying less than their militant office-working counterparts:

“The first question I get asked now by candidates is whether the role is remote, hybrid or in the office. Not what the job pays,” says Jennifer Mazzarolo, CPA, president of GTA-based firm, Maverick Consulting Group, which specializes in recruitment, transition and coaching services for CPAs. “Base salary is still important, but people are willing to give a little in that regard to get the flexibility we have all enjoyed during the pandemic.”

Friendly reminder: do not accept a pay cut for the privilege of working remotely.

CPA Canada also breaks down annual mental health coverage provided by three of the four Big 4 firms in the Great White North offered as part of overall wellness incentives:

• KPMG: CA$2000 ($1,557)
• Deloitte: CA$4000 ($3,115)
• EY: CA$5000 ($3,894)

The average accounting firm salary in Canada is CA$50,000 ($38,978) per year or $25.64 per hour. Entry-level positions start at $42,800 per year, while most experienced workers make up to $95,000 per year (Talent.com).

“It’s an active candidate-driven market,” says Mazzarolo. “Instead of The Great Resignation, I think it’s ‘The Great Awakening.’ Candidates are looking at what’s in it for me, realizing they are the architects of their own careers.”

Work-life balance preferred over big salaries, CPAs say [CPA Canada]

The post Canadian Accounting Firms Are Getting Rid of Bonuses So They Can Pay More? appeared first on Going Concern.

Bloomberg reports:

The Big Four accounting firms are showering staff with pay increases in Singapore, where an acute labor shortage is driving a fierce contest for talent.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Deloitte LLP lifted base salaries starting from July 1, according to internal documents from the two firms reviewed by Bloomberg News.

Ernst & Young LLP had an off-cycle pay adjustment in April for some parts of the firm, on top of a special bonus payout last year and the annual salary review in October, it said in a response to Bloomberg queries.

KPMG LLP said in May that it will raise entry-level salaries by as much as 20%, along with providing “market-competitive bonuses.”

Associate pay at Deloitte jumped S$500 (US$359) to S$3,500 per month per the internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg. Analysts saw a S$600 ($431) bump and managerial roles got “a more modest S$100 to S$200 boost.” The firm adjusted salaries based on the “current market to remain competitive,” Ong Siok Peng, talent leader for Deloitte Singapore, told Bloomberg News.

No dollar figures are given for PwC, only that “higher increments” than previous years were made to base salaries according to an email that went out to staff. For EY the Bloomberg piece says only that it “may add to its off-cycle salary bump.” And KPMG says that the firm “will do what’s needed, ‘including on the remuneration front,’ but declined to give monetary specifics.

The average attrition rate among Big 4 firms in Singapore rose to 38% in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2021, compared with 24% in the year-earlier period, according to figures submitted to the government. That’s compared to a median attrition rate of 62% for all audit firms, a number double what it was the year before.

The post A Labor Shortage in Singapore Is Forcing Big 4 Firms to Cough Up Higher Salaries appeared first on Going Concern.

Per a tipster:

There’s a payroll snafu of some sort at EY and seems just about everyone had their payroll reversed. Mass panic and overdrafts.

And a Fishbowl thread:

According to our tipster and comments on Fishbowl the firm has yet to send out any communications regarding the issue and it’s too early to reach anyone at payroll. “I’m sure we’ll get some sort of messaging once leadership wakes up,” writes one Fishbowl user.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

Update: discussion on Reddit

Best comment:

EY paid their settlement today. The partners did not want to take the hit alone.

EY reversing paychecks from last Friday? [Fishbowl]

Update: EY sent out an email to all those affected:

We’re told that if anyone needs to be reimbursed for overdrafts, fees, or vig they are to follow EY’s usual reimbursement process.

Update #2: ADP, EY’s payroll provider, issued a statement:

We can confirm that we experienced an error that caused a payment reversal for a group of US employees of one of our clients. We understand the urgency of this issue and our team is working swiftly to resolve this to ensure employees receive their pay as quickly as possible

The post EYers Are Waking Up to Overdrafts This Morning Due to a Serious Payroll Snafu (UPDATED) appeared first on Going Concern.

New hires in accounting with 0 exp are demanding:

– $80k-$100k
– Remote work
– 30 hours a week
– Client contact / advisory roles

This is unsustainable.

What does the future of U.S. talent strategy look like?

— Brandon Hall (@bhallcpa) July 8, 2022

Discuss. And don’t bully Brandon, he agrees new hires are grossly underpaid, underappreciated, and overworked. “Firms can’t pay new grads $100k unless they raise prices… drastically,” he wrote.

Related:
Pizza Parties In Lieu of Compensation: A Comprehensive History

The post New Hires Are Making Absolutely Wild Demands Like Decent Salaries and Remote Work, Says Guy appeared first on Going Concern.

eFinancialCareers is busy sharing details on Big 4 salaries across the pond in this blessed workers’ market and if you don’t follow them already you really should, their Morning Coffee newsletter is just full of lovely information that never fails to be the piss in partners’ Cheerios.

One aspect we’re particularly fond of is how eFC pits Big 4 firms against banks. Like this:

While banks have, for the most part, spent the past year increasing junior salaries at a rate far exceeding inflation, the Big Four professional services firms (EY, Deloitte, KPMG & PWC) have not.

As we reported earlier this month, first year audit associates at EY’s London office have had their salaries increased from £29k ($36k) to £30k this year, which looks parsimonious in light of a UK inflation rate of 9.1%. However, KPMG was more generous in May, with mid-year pay rises of £2-4k for non-partners, backdated to April, in addition to its standard annual pay increase in October.

We need to pause here momentarily and call out the above paragraph’s spectacular and totally appropriate weaponization of the English language.

Moving on with some freshly-reported specifics on PwC UK’s definition of “competitive”:

Now PWC has come in with a feat of greater generosity still. The Times reports that it’s hiked pay for 11,000 of its 22,000 UK staff by the most for a decade. Experienced PWC people are getting a 9% salary hike and PWC graduates are getting 10%.

How much will they earn as a result? The Times is strangely silent on this, but it seems consulting juniors at PWC who had been getting around £31k in the first year and £34k in the second year will now be on salaries of £34k and £37k instead. Still, that’s less than half the going rate for analysts at investment banks in London.

In a press release, Chairman Kevin Ellis said “as a business and an employer we can’t ignore market pressures and want to ensure pay at every level is as competitive as possible.” To that end, they’re investing more than £120m (US$147.2m) in pay raises and allocating an additional £138m (US$169.3m) to bonuses this year, up £10m (US$12.3m) from last year. “Our significant investment in pay reflects the strong underlying productivity of the firm following recent investments, and the continued hard work of our people,” he said.

PwC left this note to editors at the bottom of the press release so I guess I should include it what with being called out and all:

The majority of our people will receive at least a 7% rise in base pay, effective from 1 July. Those receiving less would include those people near the top of their respective pay bands, and recent joiners who negotiated their pay rate at the point of joining. The percentage rise would also be influenced by any other pay increases this year, where applicable.

On top of base pay, our people get a wide range of financial and non financial benefits which you can find out more about here: https://www.pwc.co.uk/careers/about-us/reward.html

With all this talk about pay you’ll remember here that despite the tight job market and high demand for accounting talent, PwC UK is picky about who they hire. It stands to reason then that they’d want to reward the high caliber talent they do let through the doors. You’d think.

Will this move be enough for PwC to come out on top in the talent war? Something tells us wherever Big 4 firms end up, it will be squarely in the middle.

The post Raises at the Queen’s PwC Are Better Than Other Big 4s But Still Not Beating Inflation appeared first on Going Concern.

Staff in EY’s tax division have learnt for the first time the salary ranges paid for graduates, consultants, managers and directors as part of a pay transparency drive at the big four firm.

A former EY partner said the rates were “disturbingly low”. However, recruiters felt the rates were competitive and generally above market.

The firm’s partners told staff graduates in the tax division would earn from $64,000 to $66,500 each year; consultants from $69,000; senior consultants from $86,000; managers from $116,000; senior managers from $154,000; and directors from $210,000, according to multiple EY sources.

This data — part of an overall transparency drive at Big 4 firms in Australia that includes PwC totally disclosing staff and partner pay and Deloitte publishing stats on how many misconduct reports they investigated last fiscal year — is not meant for external consumption. Your guess is as good as ours as to why.

While EY partners are disclosing some salary band information to teams and individuals, they do not want to disclose the rates to the market because they do not think it is “in the best interests of our people”, a spokeswoman said.

“For transparency, EY is now sharing salary band information within teams and at an individual level,” she said.

“Salary bands vary depending on service line, geography, specialisation and role. We do not believe sharing salary band information more publicly is relevant or in the best interests of our people.”

AFR gives us a reason why EY may not want this data out in the wild: “The minimum pay for EY graduates is less than PwC graduates, but the minimum pay and experience required overlap significantly beyond this rank,” they wrote. An EY staff member who did not want to be named for obvious reasons said the rates were not competitive with the market and felt the firm was slower to promote staff than rival big four firms.  The difference was most noticeable for EY staff who had spent their whole career at the firm, they said. Remember these numbers are in Aussie money:

Recruiters who spoke to AFR about the salary data disagree with the former partner who said it’s low. EY Tax pay rates are “quite high in comparison to a large majority of the market,” said Thomas Patroni, a director at Edward Jacobs Recruitment. Are we counting Macca’s cashiers as accounting professionals in the market?

From $64k to over $210k: here’s what EY pays its tax division [Australian Financial Review]

The post Former EY Partner Calls Newly-Released Tax Salary Data “Disturbingly Low” appeared first on Going Concern.

Allow me to refer back to this quick video put out by the Illinois CPA Society last year that offers just a few reasons why today’s accounting students are choosing not to head straight for the CPA as has been tradition since the dawn of (billable) time:

• They feel they can take off in their anticipated or chosen careers without it.
• They believe that any value the CPA credential holds is outweighed by its lack of relevance to their personal endeavors and the time commitment necessary to obtain it.
• They don’t see the personal or financial return on investment.
• Their employers or prospective employers aren’t supporting or requiring it.
• They see other experiences as being more valuable.

I’d like to add a data point to that list. I found this today in my “crap worth writing about on Going Concern” file, which is really just a bunch of screenshots littered throughout my pile of cat pictures and maybe a couple links buried in my 108 open Chrome tabs. It’s only a single screenshot but why waste time say lot word when few word do trick. This is from a CNBC article on master’s degrees that give the best salary boosts:

That’s $1,982. The government gave people more than that in stimulus checks in 2020. You can’t even purchase this (obviously) used 1995 Buick LeSabre I found on Cars.com for that:

I mention this as a tie-in to the ongoing issue of lower CPA exam candidate numbers because both issues are directly related to a single pervasive issue: perceived lack of value. You’re accountants after all, of course you’re going to consider more than anyone else whether or not something is worth it.

As we work our way through the AICPA Trends report data, I guess we’ll find out just how many people have decided 4% isn’t worth investing all the time, effort, and student loan debt into a master’s. While a master’s isn’t technically required for licensure, it’s historically been a good option to meet the 150-hour rule which some have pointed out is yet another deterrent to licensure after you get past that whole “not getting paid what I’m worth” bit, but that’s a topic for another day.

We’ll update this space with the Trends report master’s graduate numbers shortly.

Photo by Jeff Weese from Pexels

The post Accounting Bottoms Out the List of Master’s Degrees That Offer the Best Salary Boost (Read: It Doesn’t) appeared first on Going Concern.

With the ongoing Great Resignation across all industries and the critical pipeline problem contributing to a shortage of accountants, the profession is in a bit of trouble. Salaries have barely budged in years and it’s a well-established fact that more lucrative industries (medicine, law, and computer science to name a few) are luring potential accounting students away from the major. Whereas years ago business students saw a career in accounting as one resilient even in recessions, today’s students have perhaps heard too many stories about long hours, stress, and not nearly enough compensation and benefits to make up for it. As you’re about to see from the salary reports we’ve shared with you over the past few months those rumors are in fact true.

Big 4 compensation discussions are a few months off but in the meantime we have gathered a collection of 2022 accounting salary projections from various talent and recruiting firms and have assembled them here for you to browse at your leisure. We’ll update it should we have more information, and keep an eye out for 2022 Big 4 compensation data as the new numbers roll out later this year.

Let’s start with the salary guide to beat all salary guides: the 2022 Accounting & Finance Salary Guide from Robert Half. According to trusty ole Bob, starting pay in each of the 10 public accounting roles included in the 2022 salary guide is expected to rise by an average of between 1.4% and 2.6%. Starting salaries in Tax and Audit are up ever-so-slightly from 2021:

Tax

• Senior manager/director: 2%
• Manager: 2%
• Senior tax accountant: 1.4%
• Tax accountant, 1-3 years’ experience: 1.6%
• Entry-level tax accountant: 2.6%

Audit and assurance services

• Senior manager/director: 1.6%
• Manager: 1.4%
• Senior auditor: 1.6%
• Auditor, 1-3 years’ experience: 2.2%
• Entry-level auditor: 1.6%

In addition to general numbers, the Robert Half report has a nifty feature that lets you search by location, so if you’re in a city like San Francisco where you get paid 42% more than the national average but have nothing left in your checking account after you’ve sold a kidney to pay rent you can check the report to see if you might be able to move out of that Tenderloin studio this year. We pulled the numbers for five expensive accounting hubs – San Francisco, New York City, Washington, DC, Boston, and Seattle – to get the skinny on projected 2022 accounting salaries for HCOL cities if that’s something you’re interested in.

Often forgotten in any discussion about COL is the lower end of that but don’t worry, we looked at projected salaries for eight medium cost of living cities as well.

On the topic of cost of living locales, we also have 10 Cities Where Starting Pay In Public Accounting Will Be the Highest In 2022 and that post’s depressing cousin 10 Cities Where Starting Pay In Public Accounting Will Be the Lowest In 2022.

The entire Robert Half 2022 Accounting & Finance Salary Guide is worth a read if you have an afternoon to spare and consider salary projections a hobby given the responsibilities of your day job probably make real hobbies somewhat impractical.

Moving on, we also have the 2022 Salary Guide from Century Group. The report features projected salary ranges for nine positions—four in audit and five in tax—broken down by experience from those with little to no experience in the position to highly-experienced, well-credentialed professionals. These salary projections are also sorted based on firm size by revenue from $1 — $50 million to those with more than $1 billion in revenue. These salary projections cover the following nine positions:

• Audit partner
• Audit senior manager
• Audit manager
• Audit senior
• Tax partner
• Tax senior manager
• Tax manager
• Tax senior
• Tax staff

According to our comment section the Century Group numbers may be a bit off, let’s remember these are only projections and each of these companies have their own methods for calculating their data and if you wanted to make a career out of questioning whether numbers are accurate or not you should have been an accoun– oh, never mind.

Meanwhile we also have data from the Accounting Principals 2022 salary guide. The AP guide was released in November 2021 and estimates that accounting salaries are expected to rise 6.4% this year. At the time of the report’s debut inflation was not running quite as high as it is these few months later, now that it’s caught up accounting firms will need to offer raises higher than 7% for its professionals to break even and who knows where we’ll be in the fall when Big 4 comp updates roll out. Let’s not worry too much about that for the moment, rest assured no matter what the number is I’m sure you’ll be adequately disappointed.

Released last October, we also have the 2022 Accounting & Finance Salary Guide from Alliance Resource Group. In it you will find a 2022 salary outlook for 11 positions within public accounting (six in tax and five in audit), with a salary range for each position. The big takeaway is this quote from the report:

While pay raises are returning to pre-pandemic levels across all industries, rising prices mean higher salaries may not keep pace with inflation.

Good to know. And firms wonder why they’re having trouble recruiting and retaining talent.

The Hays US salary projections report released in November doesn’t look much better. The Hays guide covers tax and audit roles in the following seven states plus the Washington, DC metro (I almost typed DMV here but then I remembered people who don’t live in the DMV think you’re talking about something completely different when you mention it):

• California
• Colorado
• Washington, DC; Maryland; and Virginia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• New York
• Texas

Some roles in the Hays report are exactly the same as the year prior while tax directors in New York can rejoice as they top the increases with an eye-watering 44.7% salary increase over 2021.

Still recovering from the layoffs and pay cuts of the early days of the pandemic, firms are finding themselves increasingly battered by the talent problem. Looking at some of these projections, I think we can see why people are fleeing public accounting at the rate they are.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

The post Here’s Everything We Know So Far About 2022 Accounting Salary Projections appeared first on Going Concern.

The story I linked was a New York Times article that went something like this:

The Internal Revenue Service said on Thursday that it planned a hiring spree this tax season as it tries to clear a backlog of more than 20 million unprocessed tax returns from previous years.

The agency said it intended to hire 10,000 new employees in the next year and hoped to bring on about half of those workers in the next few months. The I.R.S. described the blueprint as an “all hands on deck” approach to emerge from longstanding staffing shortages that were compounded by the pandemic.

“To ensure inventory is back to a healthy level for next filing season, we are leaving no stone unturned — taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to ensure as many employees as possible are dedicating time to return processing,” Charles P. Rettig, the I.R.S. commissioner, said in a statement.

On top of that, the agency wants to hire 200 additional technologists to help the agency further modernize its 8-track era technology. Anyone here even know what an 8-track is? I’m old and even I barely know what they are. Point is their tech is old (duh). These IT job openings can be found on the USAJOBS site here by searching for job series 2210 – Information Technology Management. As for the WFH situation, “IRS IT is currently in a maximum telework mode and will have a competitive telework policy going forward” according to the press release linked above. Keep in mind President Biden said in his State of the Union address earlier this month that he wants to see government employees return to the office en masse now that this Covid thing is starting to blow over. For whatever that’s worth.

Because finding 10,000 people willing to dedicate their lives to public service is a herculean task that will no doubt take some time to complete, in the meantime the IRS is deploying AI chatbots to help with their perpetually unprecedented high call volume. To my knowledge, this move is the first significant instance of robots taking your jobs we’ve ever seen, not counting the advent of digital confirmations and other such tools that don’t necessarily replace humans, just simplify tasks that used to be assigned to them.

From the March 10 IRS press release:

“Our phone lines continue to see unprecedented demand, and the IRS continues to look for ways to help people and avoid long wait times,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “Our telephone representatives remain an important part of the service we provide, but these bots can help some people avoid lengthy phone delays for something that could be resolved on the spot. This is part of a larger effort to help people get the assistance they need this tax season.”

The IRS in recent weeks has deployed voice and chat bots in English and Spanish for phone lines that assist taxpayers with tax payments issues or understanding an IRS notice they may have received. People with general tax season questions generally will not encounter these features at this time. The bots are now available to help taxpayers with:

• How to make one-time payments
• Answers to frequently asked questions
• Collection notice clarification

I don’t know about y’all but my Echo can’t even find the song I asked for on Spotify 85% of the time so let’s make sure we manage our expectations and understand that humans would probably be preferable here, they’re just making do with what they’ve got due to their shortage of humans.

About that shortage. The IRS has an entire page dedicated to salary and benefits, which you can peruse at your convenience here. One thing to note — and anyone who put in 70 hours last week and ate at least 15 of them will appreciate this bit — is the explicit mention of overtime and holiday pay.

In addition to paying time-and-a-half for working more than 8 hours in a day, or 40 hours in a week, we’ll also pay you the following premium rates:

• Night (10% premium)
• Sunday (25% premium)
• Holiday (100% premium)
• Availability Pay (25% premium) for cetain [sic] Law Enforcement positions

Hey uh IRS, y’all need any editors to catch copy errors for you? I know of one currently making dirt who’d be happy to help you out if the price is right.

Anyway. IRS grunt salaries use the General Schedule (GS) classification and pay system, standard for government employees. You can find those salary tables here. You know what actually let’s just paste it right here. Mind this is the base, you’ll have to check that link to find tables for specific localities.

Grades and who gets paid what are explained thusly:

The General Schedule has 15 grades, with GS-1 being the lowest, and GS-15 being the highest. Agencies establish (classify) the grade of each job based on the level of difficulty, responsibility, and qualifications required. Individuals with a high school diploma and no additional experience typically qualify for GS-2 positions; those with a Bachelor’s degree for GS-5 positions; and those with a Master’s degree for GS-9 positions. Each grade has 10 step rates (steps 1-10) that are each worth approximately 3 percent of the employee’s salary. Within-grade step increases are based on an acceptable level of performance and longevity.

Manager salaries are based on the IRS Payband System which you can find here. I’m not pasting that table, I’d be here all day copying every locale.

Is it worth it? Well I guess that depends on what you’re making now and how much you value your nights and weekends. They’ve had almost ten years to solve that problem they used to have with employees using company cards on extravagant dinners, booze, and porn so we’re not sure about the perks but just assume free internet porn and wine isn’t among them.

Any current or former IRS employees are welcome to use the contact information below to let us know their experiences and, if necessary, share some anecdotes that might scare people away. If there’s anything we love, it’s scaring people away.

Image by Katie White from Pixabay

The post The IRS Wants to Hire 10,000 New Employees in the Next Year. So What Are They Paying? appeared first on Going Concern.

In the public accounting bracket, Century Group provides salary expectation ranges for nine positions—four in audit and five in tax—covering the 25th to 75th percentiles and based on firm/company revenue. There are four firm/company size indicators in the salary guide:

• $1 – $50 million
• $51 million – 500 million
• $501 million – $1 billion
• Over $1 billion

Employee percentiles are defined by Century Group as:

• 25th percentile: candidate has little or no prior experience in the position; still developing relevant skills; low demand.
• 50th percentile: candidate has average experience; has the majority of the necessary skills; moderate demand.
• 75th percentile: candidate has above-average experience and most or all of the necessary skills; may have specialized certifications; high demand.

Here are the projected base pay ranges for the nine roles in public accounting included in Century Group’s 2022 Salary Guide:

Audit partner

$1 – $50 million

• 25th percentile: $181,239
• 50th percentile: $226,549
• 75th percentile: $271,858

$51 million – $500 million

• 25th percentile: $211,693
• 50th percentile: $251,882
• 75th percentile: $294,094

$501 million – $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $238,301
• 50th percentile: $272,049
• 75th percentile: $309,898

Over $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $250,687
• 50th percentile: $313,358
• 75th percentile: $376,030

Audit senior manager

$1 – $50 million

• 25th percentile: $120,537
• 50th percentile: $150,671
• 75th percentile: $180,805

$51 million – $500 million

• 25th percentile: $133,009
• 50th percentile: $166,261
• 75th percentile: $199,514

$501 million – $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $145,481
• 50th percentile: $181,851
• 75th percentile: $218,222

Over $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $151,089
• 50th percentile: $188,861
• 75th percentile: $226,633

Audit manager

$1 – $50 million

• 25th percentile: $109,579
• 50th percentile: $136,974
• 75th percentile: $164,369

$51 million – $500 million

• 25th percentile: $120,917
• 50th percentile: $151,147
• 75th percentile: $181,376

$501 million – $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $132,256
• 50th percentile: $165,319
• 75th percentile: $198,383

Over $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $134,901
• 50th percentile: $168,626
• 75th percentile: $202,351

Audit senior

$1 – $50 million

• 25th percentile: $77,689
• 50th percentile: $97,111
• 75th percentile: $116,533

$51 million – $500 million

• 25th percentile: $84,469
• 50th percentile: $105,586
• 75th percentile: $126,703

$501 million – $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $91,249
• 50th percentile: $114,061
• 75th percentile: $136,873

Over $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $92,161
• 50th percentile: $115,201
• 75th percentile: $138,242

Tax partner

$1 – $50 million

• 25th percentile: $181,239
• 50th percentile: $226,549
• 75th percentile: $271,858

$51 million – $500 million

• 25th percentile: $213,106
• 50th percentile: $253,564
• 75th percentile: $296,058

$501 million – $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $237,193
• 50th percentile: $270,783
• 75th percentile: $308,457

Over $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $250,687
• 50th percentile: $313,358
• 75th percentile: $376,030

Tax senior manager

$1 – $50 million

• 25th percentile: $121,111
• 50th percentile: $151,388
• 75th percentile: $181,666

$51 million – $500 million

• 25th percentile: $127,328
• 50th percentile: $159,160
• 75th percentile: $190,992

$501 million – $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $134,451
• 50th percentile: $168,064
• 75th percentile: $201,677

Over $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $137,798
• 50th percentile: $172,247
• 75th percentile: $184,551

Tax manager

$1 – $50 million

• 25th percentile: $109,263
• 50th percentile: $136,579
• 75th percentile: $163,894

$51 million – $500 million

• 25th percentile: $116,905
• 50th percentile: $146,131
• 75th percentile: $175,358

$501 million – $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $124,547
• 50th percentile: $155,684
• 75th percentile: $186,821

Over $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $127,648
• 50th percentile: $159,559
• 75th percentile: $191,471

Tax senior

$1 – $50 million

• 25th percentile: $82,952
• 50th percentile: $90,657
• 75th percentile: $100,676

$51 million – $500 million

• 25th percentile: $84,645
• 50th percentile: $92,507
• 75th percentile: $102,730

$501 million – $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $86,372
• 50th percentile: $94,395
• 75th percentile: $104,827

Over $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $88,531
• 50th percentile: $96,755
• 75th percentile: $107,448

Tax staff

$1 – $50 million

• 25th percentile: N/A
• 50th percentile: N/A
• 75th percentile: N/A

$51 million – $500 million

• 25th percentile: $67,867
• 50th percentile: $73,415
• 75th percentile: $86,162

$501 million – $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $71,788
• 50th percentile: $78,085
• 75th percentile: $88,992

Over $1 billion

• 25th percentile: $76,876
• 50th percentile: $84,018
• 75th percentile: $93,303

For more information, here is our previous coverage of 2022 accounting salary projections.

The post How Are Public Accounting Salaries Stacking Up For 2022? (Part 5, Century Group) appeared first on Going Concern.

A tipster was kind enough to send us the compensation email in its entirety which has been transcribed below, bold formatting and all.

In the past two years, we have invested an incremental $2 billion in total rewards for our people across compensation, bonuses, recognition awards (RAC) and well-being benefits. For the next step in our compensation journey, we are making the following updates:

• We are accelerating the timing of our annual salary increase and promotion effective date from October to August, beginning this year. That means your applicable raise will be effective August 8, and you will receive your increase, annual Performance-Based Bonus (PBB) and client-serving promotion bonus in your August 26 paycheck.

• Spring client-serving promotions will continue to be effective this May, and annual promotions now will be effective in August instead of October, so we can recognize some of your career achievements sooner, too. Beginning in FY23, our US client-serving promotion cycles will be effective in August and January.

• As a result of our strong business performance, we allocated additional funding to our RAC program this year, allowing our partners to recognize more people for their individual performance and contribution. In addition to our RAC program, beginning next year in FY23, we plan to implement a discretionary mid-year recognition bonus program. This program will be separate from our annual PBB and will be funded based on firm performance as of mid-year. This provides an opportunity for our partners to recognize individuals based on their extraordinary performance and contributions throughout the year. We will share more about this program in the months ahead.

• Thanks to our strong year-to-date results and projections through year-end, we anticipate fully funding our PBB program for FY22. And similar to FY22, we expect FY23 compensation increases to be strong, competitive in the markets and aligned with the cost of living. You’ll receive notification of your base salary increase and applicable bonus amounts in your compensation statement on August 5.

These latest enhancements are a part of our compensation strategy and continued journey to be a leader in how we recognize and reward our people. We know you choose to build your career at EY for many reasons, including compensation, and we continue to look for innovative ways to create an exceptional EY experience, improve your well-being and help you learn and grow.

We also just launched our new EY WOW Transition Fund to support you in safely getting back together in purposeful ways, with reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses related to team building activities, commuting, and dependent and pet care. The fund is part of our ongoing efforts to enhance our market-leading benefits and perks, which include our 2022 EY Well-being Fund expansion, updated meal allowances, and enhanced dependent care reimbursements.

We will continue looking for ways to recognize the valuable contributions you bring to EY by evaluating our total rewards, benchmarking across industries, and considering the economic climate. On behalf of US leadership team, thank you for all you do.

In our quest to bring you the accounting profession’s finest and most thorough investigative journalism, we also dug up this r/accounting thread which appears to be the only mention of the EY comp news on the sub so far, and it is predictably someone bitching about it because of course they are.

Affected individuals are encouraged to abuse the comment section below to share their thoughts on this news.

The post Compensation Watch ’22: EYers Should Expect Raises to Hit Their Bank Accounts Come August appeared first on Going Concern.

For 2022’s salary guide, Accounting Principals provided salary data for employees in three tiers based on experience:

• Low: Zero to two years of experience in that position or one similar.
• Medium: Three to 10 years of experience in that position or one similar.
• High: Ten or more years of experience in that position or one similar.