Some of you grinding away in public accounting might have “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” of being a CFO one day. So, let’s see how well that job pays these days, courtesy of three accounting and finance salary guides that have been released in the past six months.
Randstad
Randstad organizes executive titles in its salary guide by interquartile ranges across three levels of company revenue: small ($50 million), mid ($100 million), and large ($250 million or more). Here’s its 2019 salary projection for CFOs:
- Small: $170,990 – $305,618
- Mid: $193,311 – $345,514
- Large: $228,874 – $409,077
Robert Half
Robert Half reported starting pay ranges by four percentiles in its salary guide: 25th (newbies), 50th (average experience), 75th (above-average experience), and 95th (significant experience and expertise).
Salary figures represent the national averages. Bonuses, benefits, and other forms of compensation aren’t factored into the starting salary ranges, according to the guide.
Here’s Bob Half’s 2019 salary projection for CFOs:
- 25th: $121,250
- 50th: $196,750
- 75th: $239,250
- 95th: $497,250
Accounting Principals
If you’re looking for salaries and total cash compensation figures, Accounting Principals’ salary guide has you covered. The data in the guide is broken into three categories: average base salary by company size (small, medium, and large; base salary (low, high, and average); and total cash compensation (low, high, and average). Here’s its salary projections in each of the three categories:
Base salary by company size
- Small: $226,637
- Medium: $287,404
- Large: $471,511
Base salary
- Low: $201,254
- High: $580,610
- Average: $375,291
Total cash compensation
- Low: $251,708
- High: $1,066,705
- Average: $545,296
Honestly, I would have expected these salary ranges to be higher. They actually seem on par (maybe a little higher) with a public accounting firm partner. But, seriously, who wants to work in public accounting their whole career?