Skipping the smart-ass headline for this one and getting right to it: Virginia Society of CPAs surveyed a total of 84 public firms, 17 solo practitioners, 133 accountants in corporate/industry, and 48 in government/nonprofit for the 2022 VSCPA Compensation & Benefits Survey and here are the results:
| Mean | Median | |
|---|---|---|
| Accountant I: 0-1.9 years | $59,022 | $60,000 |
| Accountant II: 2-2.9 years | $64,972 | $67,189 |
| Accountant III: 3-4.9 years | $73,381 | $72,800 |
| Supervisor/Mgr. I: 5-6.9 years | $84,645 | $88,348 |
| Supervisor/Mgr. II: 7-9.9 years | $97,145 | $100,000 |
| Senior Manager: 10-14.9 years | $118,635 | $116,512 |
| Director: 15+ years | $141,876 | $128,750 |
| Partner | $211,733 | $180,100 |
| Paraprofessionals/Bookkeepers | $55,173 | $52,600 |
| Advisory | $91,943 | $89,136 |
| Human Resources | $87,727 | $88,000 |
| IT/Technology | $91,000 | $95,898 |
| Marketing | $78,882 | $72,000 |
| Finance | $109,013 | $107,641 |
| General Administration | $53,516 | $55,000 |
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:
| Position | Change from 2020 |
|---|---|
| Accountant I | +15.5% |
| Accountant III | +10.7% |
| Supervisor/Manager I | +12.7% |
| Senior Managers | +13.9% |
There were some unexpectedly low changes elsewhere, particularly at the 7-9.9 years experience level and Partners:
| Position | Change from 2020 |
|---|---|
| Supervisor/Managers II | +5.7% |
| Partners | +0.5% |
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.
