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Survey: What Was the Salary at Your First Accounting Job?

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

If you remember, that is. Personally, I do. The job was with a boutique CPA firm and they offered, and I accepted, $43k. This was 2003. 

I imagine most people vividly remember their first job's salary. The feel of the paper it was printed on or the person who called with the news. But the number, number, comma, followed by three zeros that fell in line behind the dollar sign, that's the detail that trumps all. It's such a paramount moment in a young 20-something's life to get that first job out of college; I'd be surprised to meet someone who doesn't have a slew of memories about the events that led up to that first job offer. Sure, once the green washes off, it's easy to trivialize your giddiness about that first salary, but you can tell by reading the new hire threads that those kids are wet-their-pants excited.

Which is why we're sharing with you this story of a Notre Dame professor who's collecting data on first full-time positions for people who obtained accounting degrees.    

Her name is Jennifer Stevens and she is an Assistant Professor at University of Notre Dame's Mendoza School of Business. She claims to be "an accountant all the way" because she has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Miami University (OH), plus a Ph.D. in accounting from The Ohio State University.
 
After obtaining her master's she worked in fraud and forensic accounting for EY in Chicago. She then joined a boutique consulting firm, Alvarez & Marsal. Dr. Stevens says that she enjoyed the corporate world, but "I am glad I returned to academia. I absolutely love my job (and football season)."
 
And before you start, she doesn't get summers off, she spends them doing research. Which brings us to the survey. Dr. Stevens is interested in studying the labor market for accountants. She hopes to build on prior work done in labor economics and "investigate the unique complexities related to our profession."
 
The survey takes less than 1 minute to complete so if you could fill it out, we'd appreciate it. And be sure to share the link with your accounting friends, colleagues, bosses, grandbosses, great-grandbosses, etc. etc. so the data and conclusions reached can be added to the profession's understanding of the labor market for accounting graduates. 
 
We appreciate your participation. No, really.

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Women Accountants Earn 60% Less Than Men in UK

Somehow female accountants over 45 in the UK earn 60% less than their male counterparts. The disparity is so ridiculous it defies understanding, but according to a study conducted by the ICAEW and Robert Half, men earn more than women at all stages of their careers and the gap widens with increased experience. This finding is consistent with the 2008 report. So ladies, if you’re on the partner track and thinking, “London might nice,” we’d advise against it. As for our female readers from the UK, you can always jump the pond, we’d love to have you here …


From the report:

Overall, male [Associate Chartered Accountants] are better remunerated than females – an average basic salary of £88,200 for males (median £76,000) is almost 50% higher than their female colleagues’ average of £60,500 (median £53,000) (Fig 3). The average male salary is up by 7% on last year, females by 10%. However, the average bonus of £24,700 for males has dropped slightly compared to last year, while that of their female colleagues, at £11,600, has increased by 33% (median £6,900 males and £2,400 females). The bonus received by male ACAs represents 28% of average basic salary, while females received only 19%.

The differential reflects in part at least that male ACAs are typically older (46 against 40 for females), longer qualified (18 and 14 years respectively) and more likely to be in a permanent full-time role (88% and 72%). They also spend longer hours at work (45 v 38 hours per week).

It’s especially cute how this is “in part” chalked up to age and experience. It would probably be terribly bad form for the ICAEW and Robert Half to come right out and say that the difference in average pay is say, absolutely ridiculous and blatant evidence of patriarchal institutions exhibiting clear gender bias when it comes to compensation.

ICAEW/Robert Half Career Benchmarking Survey 2009 [ICAEW via Accountancy Age]