How Much Do Accountants Make

How Much Do Accountants Make

Unfortunately, there is no straightforward answer.  The career path towards an excellent accountants’ salary involves various consideration to their final actual income. However, we know that an accountant’s salary is one satisfying and rewarding number when its earned. Although it requires great dedication and determination to excel in an Accounting degree or a business-related degree and to excel at work can be quite a challenging task to achieve. To start off, we can conclude that the average accountants salary based on the latest 2012 research is $68,960. However, that is only the average salary figure of an average accountant with a qualified bachelor accounting degree. An accountant’s salary varies depending on several factors. Take note: Some factors will affect the accountants salary more than other factors.

The determinant factors are as follows:-

  • Level of Accounting Degree
  • Degrees and Certifications achieved
  • Amount of experience and training
  • Size of the hiring company
  • Company environment
  • Corporate accounting v.s Public accounting

Because of all these factors, how much do accountants make varies greatly. Let’s take a quick example: An accountant who holds a Diploma Certificate in Accounting compared to an accountant who holds a Bachelor Accounting Degree. The accountant with diploma will earn approximately $30,000 and the other accountant with an Accounting degree will make $50,000. These figures are estimates and takes into account that all of the factors above for both accountants are equal except their Level of Education in Accounting.

 

Factors Affecting How Much Do Accountants Make

 

Accountants Salary 1024x576 How Much Do Accountants Make

 

1) How Much Do Accountants Make with their Amount of Experience and Training

According to a 2008 salary survey, a staffing services agency specializing in accounting and finance conclude that accountants and auditors with up to 1 year of experience earned between $29,250 and $45,500 a year. Those with 1 to 3 years of experience earned between $33,000 and $52,000. Senior Accountants and Auditors earned between $40,750 and $69,750, managers  earned between $48,000 and $90,000 and directors of accounting and auditing between $64,750 and $200,750.

 

2) Size of the Hiring Company

Another good example to determine how much an accountant make would be the Hiring Company. Assuming all of the factors above are the same except their employer. An accountant with a Bachelor Accounting Degree which is hired by the Big4 will earn $55,000 and another accountant with the same qualification and is hired by a private sole trader company may only earn $48,000. Another benefit of getting hired into a well-known company is the ease of finding a job in another firm.

3) Choice of Employers

Choice of employer is a serious factor in deciding how much do accountants make. For example, those employed by state agencies usually earned the least of all those surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, averaging about $47,000 a year. Local government accountants earned slightly more than their state counterparts, averaging $50,220. On the other hand, those who worked in the private sector, such as for management companies could expect to average $56,560 a year. Overall, the best paid accountants worked for accounting or tax preparation companies and averaged $57,020 in 2011.

4) Accounting Degree & Qualification Levels

A College graduate with an accounting degree will earn approximately $30,000 as his/her starting salary. A University graduate with an accounting degree will earn up to $60,000 and lastly a Masters graduate with an accounting degree can earn up to $150,000.

Summary

To sum it all up, generally an accountant gets paid very well even if he/she is only a fresh graduate with an accounting degree out of university or college! Besides having those big pay checks, the demand for an accountant is constantly rising and even more in an economic recession !

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