CPA Salary and Career Guide

According to the AICPA Salary Insights 2024, the average CPA salary based in the United States is $122,000 per year, excluding bonuses. Depending on firm size and location, the average starting salary range for an accountant is from $40,000 to $57,500. But consider this, adding a CPA license to your graduate degree increases your salary up to 15% annually!

If you want to know how much CPAs make in their career paths, here are a few facts and figures to get you started.

Factors That determine CPA Salary

Employers of accountants are classified into two general areas—public accounting and private accounting. Public accounting involves working for a CPA firm while private accounting includes working for companies, not-for-profits, and governments.

Public accounting firms range in size from smaller, local “mom and pops” with two or three accountants to robust, multi-office international operations with thousands of CPAs on staff. In top accounting firms, positions are specialized in areas such as audit, tax, or advisory services. Smaller firm CPAs are expected to be generalists and work across many areas, but they may specialize over time.

Large firms are willing and able to pay a premium to attract top talent, often because they are located in larger metro regions and must compete with other firms. The more employees and assets a firm has, or the more clients they serve, the more complex various accounting functions become, and accountants’ salaries reflect that. The Big 4 accounting firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers) are good examples of where a starting CPA salary could be higher than at a smaller local firm.

Compensation and company culture vary wildly from employer to employer, but similarly sized organizations tend to have a few things in common:

According to the 2024 Robert Half Salary Guide, firms across industries are increasing CPA salaries, and “skilled accounting and finance talent is in short supply,” leading to bidding wars for talent. Some companies are offering bigger bonuses, more perks, and additional vacation time to attract recent accounting graduates. A CPA license will help you land an even bigger starting salary than you could without it.

Depending on the type of accounting, the size of the company, and your role within the company, your annual paycheck could add up to totals like those outlined below.

The public accounting profession is dominated by the Big 4, followed by large international firms, regional firms, and local firms. Work life varies significantly across these differing sized firms, so it is important to check them out before you make a final decision.

Salaries differ by service area and years of experience. For example, the tables below provide the range of salaries for audit/assurance services, tax services, and advisory/consulting services by work experience level.

Public Accountant Salary

Before we take a closer look at the average CPA salary, let’s talk about experience. What types of work are performed at each level—from entry level to senior leadership positions? In the audit/assurance track, recent graduates typically enter the firm as staff accountants.

What Do CPAs do?

In the past, staff accountants were often charged with performing the most tedious and time-consuming tasks, e.g., vouching cash disbursements. Today, technology has taken over many of these repetitive, detailed tasks. Staff accountants now start off running—analyzing data sets, meeting with clients, and writing algorithms to identify high risk transactions.

Here’s what a CPA job would look like at every experience level

Entry Level
These entry-level positions involve intensive on-the-job (OJT) learning, seeing what the “real world” actually looks like, and applying what was learned in school.

1-3 Years
During the next one to three years, experience is gained in performing the full range of auditing procedures and preparing financial statements or preparing tax returns and researching tax issues for clients.

Senior Level
At the senior level, the accountant is expected to supervise audits, review the work of staff, and recommend internal control improvements. In the tax area, the accountant would prepare more complex returns and be more involved with clients.

Manager
Advancement beyond the senior level generally requires obtaining CPA certification. Managers supervise multiple engagements and assume administrative responsibilities (e.g., scheduling and performance evaluation) as well as maintaining client relationships.

Director
The senior manager/director level is the highest non-partner level achievable. These very experienced individuals perform many partner-type functions (e.g., training and supervision, staffing and scheduling, and client development) but are not equity owners in the firm.

Location is another factor that strongly influences average accountant salary levels. Large metropolitan areas tend to offer higher average CPA salaries due to the higher cost of living as well as the greater demand for accountants in those areas. To give you an idea, here are the top paying states and metropolitan areas for accountants followed by the states that offer the most accounting jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

What Is the average CPA Salary by State?

According to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the top paying states with the highest average salary for accountants are:

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Highest Average Accountant Salary by Metropolitan Areas

Drilling down a little further into the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, here are five of the top paying U.S. metropolitan areas which employ large numbers of accountants. The message here is that if you like city living and accounting, opportunities abound!
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

With a CPA license, compensation extends far beyond just salary and monetary compensation, with different firms and companies providing healthcare, paid time off (PTO), office perks, and other benefits—which go a long way in determining job satisfaction for many accountants. While many firms and companies are experimenting with a range of new perks, such as student loan relief and unlimited PTO, let’s quickly explore some of the benefits that should also be examined when evaluating CPA salary options.

Traditional Benefits

The benefits typically offered by organizations include health insurance, paid time off (including vacation, sick leave, and paid holidays), retirement savings plans, and dental and vision insurance. Robert Half, a premier industry staffing agency, surveyed employers for its most recent 2024 Salary Guide and reported the following:

Source: Robert Half 2024 Salary Guide Accounting & Finance

New Benefits/Perk Additions for Accounting Jobs

More interesting are the newer additions to employee benefits, which address not only wellness but work flexibility and incentive offerings. Wellness programs include:

Incentive offerings are financial rewards linked to job performance that include spot awards, profit-sharing, bonuses, and stock. These motivational payments are expected to increase in amount and frequency as well as type.

The most common perks offered by organizations reflect the priorities and needs of the current workforce. These include:

Source: Robert Half 2024 Salary Guide Accounting & Finance

Industries with highest accounting and auditing salaries for 2023 were:

The specific requirements and responsibilities of your specific accounting job will depend on your role and position. Similar to the benefits, these roles can vary widely from company to company and firm to firm, so be vigilant in understanding what the role truly is and requires during the job interview process.

Top Accounting Jobs

While it is true that accountants are always needed, the demand for specific positions fluctuates over time. Robert Half reported the most “in-demand” positions in their 2024 Salary Guide identifying four percentile categories. The 25th percentile reflects a relatively new accountant with limited experience and skills at a small organization/unit. The 50th percentile identifies an accountant with an average level of experience and skills at a midsize organization/unit. The 75th percentile addresses accountants with more than average experience and skills at a larger or more complex organization. The last percentile, 95th, includes highly accomplished and experienced accountants serving in complex roles or offering specialized skill sets at larger, multi-unit, or complex organizations.

Positions are shown in alphabetical order:

Source: Robert Half 2024 Salary Guide Accounting & Finance