How much do accountants make?
Full-time accountants in Australia earn a median of A$2,003 a week, about A$104,000 a year, according to Jobs and Skills Australia, and US accountants and auditors a median of $83,680 (BLS, May 2025). Pay runs from graduate medians around A$74,000 and US associate midpoints of $65,000 to $71,000 up to A$231,000 for chartered accountants at director level, and this guide shows each market by level, with every figure sourced and dated.
Updated 2 October 2026 · Australia, US, UK, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa · Figures as at October 2026
The short answer, by career stage
Accounting pay climbs in steps tied to qualification and responsibility rather than years served. A graduate or associate is paid to learn and to produce work that someone else reviews. A senior runs jobs and reviews juniors. A manager owns a client portfolio and the team's capacity. A practice manager runs the firm's operations, and a partner or owner is paid from profit rather than a salary band.
The data follows those steps unevenly. The US is the only market where a free, current, public source breaks out public accounting by level (Robert Half's 2026 Salary Guide). Elsewhere you get official occupation-wide medians and professional body surveys, which tell you the market's shape but not the price of a manager in a 12-person firm. Two levels are missing almost everywhere: practice managers, whose title means different things from firm to firm, and partners, whose earnings are profit shares that employee surveys do not capture. We say so in each table rather than fill the gap.
How much do accountants make in Australia?
All figures in AUD, annual and before tax unless shown otherwise.
| Role or group | Pay | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| All accountants, full time (median) | A$2,003 a week, about A$104,000 a year | Jobs and Skills Australia, Accountants (ANZSCO 2211) occupation profile, accessed October 2026. Annual figure is our arithmetic (weekly × 52). |
| Chartered accountants, full time (median) | A$160,500 | CA ANZ Remuneration Survey 2025/26, members in Australia, reported February 2026 |
| Directors, all sectors (CA ANZ members, median) | A$231,000 | CA ANZ Remuneration Survey 2025/26, reported February 2026 |
| New graduates, business and management (median) | A$74,000 | QILT 2025 Graduate Outcomes Survey, national report June 2026, undergraduates in full-time work |
| Commerce roles, for comparison (midpoints) | A$85,000 to A$135,000 | Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide, assistant accountant to senior management accountant, as reported by CPA Australia, September 2026 |
Superannuation is generally on top of these figures. No free public source we could verify breaks out graduate, senior, manager and partner pay inside Australian public practice; the big recruiter guides that do are behind a download form.
How much do accountants make in United States?
All figures in USD, annual and before tax unless shown otherwise.
| Role or group | Pay | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Accountants and auditors, all industries (median) | $83,680 | BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 |
| Same, in accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll firms (median) | $81,490 | BLS OEWS, May 2025, industry NAICS 541200 |
| Same, in those firms, 10th to 90th percentile | $55,550 to $157,680 | BLS OEWS, May 2025, industry NAICS 541200 |
| Public accounting associate (midpoint) | $65,000 audit, $71,000 tax | Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide |
| Public accounting senior associate (midpoint) | $86,250 audit, $95,250 tax | Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide |
| Public accounting manager (midpoint) | $113,500 audit, $121,500 tax | Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide |
| Public accounting senior manager (midpoint) | $179,250 audit, $130,500 tax | Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide |
| Tax director (midpoint) | $180,500 | Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide |
Robert Half midpoints are national starting salaries for someone who can do the core job independently. BLS counts employees only, so firm owners and equity partners are not in it.
How much do accountants make in United Kingdom?
All figures in GBP, annual and before tax unless shown otherwise.
| Role or group | Pay | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Chartered and certified accountants, full time (median) | £50,062 | ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025 (provisional), SOC 2421, Table 14.7a |
| Same, 25th to 75th percentile | £38,696 to £68,056 | ONS ASHE 2025 (provisional) |
| Same, 10th percentile | £29,557 | ONS ASHE 2025 (provisional) |
| Same, mean | £55,414 | ONS ASHE 2025 (provisional) |
ASHE covers employees across every sector, so it mixes practice with industry and leaves out self-employed partners. ONS suppresses the 90th percentile for this occupation as too unreliable to publish.
How much do accountants make in New Zealand?
All figures in NZD, annual and before tax unless shown otherwise.
| Role or group | Pay | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Chartered accountants, full time (median) | NZ$153,000 | CA ANZ Remuneration Survey 2025/26, reported by RNZ, 4 February 2026 |
| Directors, all sectors (CA ANZ members, median) | NZ$215,080 | CA ANZ Remuneration Survey 2025/26, reported February 2026 |
| Accountants and auditors, most common range | NZ$71,000 to NZ$131,000 | Tahatū Career Navigator (NZ government), accessed October 2026; the page does not date its pay data |
The CA ANZ figures cover chartered members only, who skew experienced. Tahatū covers the whole occupation, qualified or not.
How much do accountants make in Canada?
All figures in CAD, annual and before tax unless shown otherwise.
| Role or group | Pay | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Financial auditors and accountants (median) | C$40.36 an hour, about C$78,700 a year | Job Bank, NOC 11100, reference period 2023 to 2024, updated 19 November 2025. Annual figure is our arithmetic at 37.5 hours a week. |
| Same, low to high | C$25.00 to C$71.43 an hour | Job Bank, NOC 11100, 2023 to 2024 |
| Same, Alberta and Ontario (median) | C$43.27 and C$40.87 an hour | Job Bank, NOC 11100, 2023 to 2024 |
Job Bank does not separate public accounting from industry, and its data runs a year or more behind.
Read the Australian figures together. The Jobs and Skills Australia median covers everyone working as an accountant; the CA ANZ figure covers chartered members, who are older and more senior on average, so the gap between A$104,000 and A$160,500 is as much about who is counted as about the letters after a name. The US figures disagree in a useful way: Robert Half's audit senior manager midpoint ($179,250) sits far above its tax senior manager midpoint ($130,500), and above the BLS 90th percentile for all employees of accounting firms ($157,680). They measure different things, a recruiter's placements against every employee in the industry. Where sources disagree like this, use the range, not the convenient end.
South Africa
We could not verify a named, dated public survey of accountant pay in South Africa as at October 2026. The figures circulating online for newly qualified CA(SA)s disagree by hundreds of thousands of rand and do not say where they come from, so we are not printing them. Trainee pay during articles is set by each training office. If you hire in South Africa, ask a specialist recruiter for its current survey and check how it was gathered.
What moves accountant pay
Six things explain most of the spread inside each table, and why two people with the same title are paid differently.
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The designation
CA, CPA, ACA and ACCA status is the clearest step in most pay ladders, which is why the CA ANZ medians sit well above the all-accountant figures for the same countries. Part of that gap is experience: members skew senior.
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Level and specialism
Tax, audit, advisory and business services price differently, and the gap widens with seniority. In Robert Half’s US figures a tax associate starts above an audit associate, while the audit senior manager midpoint sits far above the tax one.
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City and cost of living
Job Bank shows Alberta’s median above Ontario’s, and official data in every market varies by region. Capital cities pay more and cost more, and a remote role often lands between the two.
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Firm size
Large firms tend to run published grade bands and structured graduate intakes. Smaller firms have more room to move but less to spend, and they compete on flexibility, client variety and a shorter path to manager.
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Remote and hybrid work
Remote roles widen the field for both sides. A firm in a regional town can reach city candidates, and a candidate can work for a city firm from anywhere, which pulls pay for remote roles toward the middle. We found no dated public source that measures the effect for accountants, so treat it as a direction, not a number.
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Technology and AI skills
Firms automating bookkeeping and compliance prize people who can run the systems, review the output and talk to clients about it. That shows up as faster progression more than a separate allowance. No source we could verify puts a figure on an AI premium for accountants yet.
For candidates: using these figures
Start with the source that matches your situation. A graduate should compare against graduate data and the associate midpoints, not the occupation median, which includes people with twenty years' experience. A qualified senior moving firms should look at the body survey for their designation and the recruiter figure for their city. Ask any firm for the band, not just the offer, and what moves you through it: a designation, a review rating or a portfolio size. Our accounting careers guide covers the paths between these levels, and bookkeeping jobs: where the work is and what it pays covers the neighbouring occupation. When you are ready to look, browse open roles on The Firm's jobs board.
For firm owners: how to set a salary band
The Firm does not tell you what to pay. Your band depends on your fees, your capacity, your city and what the role has to deliver, and nobody else's number contains those. What we can give you is a method, five steps that turn the market data above into a band you can defend to a candidate and to your own budget.
- 1
Write the role scorecard first
Before you look at any number, write down what the person will deliver in the first year: client load, review responsibility, whether they manage anyone, which qualification it needs. A “senior” at one firm is a supervisor at another. The scorecard is what you match against market data, not the job title.
- 2
Triangulate at least two sources
Use one official source (BLS, ONS ASHE, Jobs and Skills Australia, Job Bank) for the shape of the market, and one recruiter or body survey that matches your role and city. Check whether each is base or total pay, includes super or bonus, and how old it is. Where they disagree, keep the range rather than picking the convenient end.
- 3
Set a band, not a number
Write a minimum, a midpoint and a maximum for the role. The midpoint is for someone who meets the scorecard in full; the range leaves room for a stretch hire and for growth without a new title. Decide in advance what moves someone through the band.
- 4
Test it against the budget
Cost the band in full: salary, super or retirement contributions, payroll tax, software seats, training and the months before the hire is billing. Then check it against the fees the role will carry and the capacity it frees for you. If the band does not fit, change the scope of the role rather than quietly under-pricing it.
- 5
Publish the range
Several US states, including California, Colorado, New York and Washington, already require pay ranges in job ads, and in Australia employees have had a right to discuss their pay since the Secure Jobs, Better Pay changes of 7 December 2022, with pay secrecy terms in contracts made since then having no effect. Check the rules where you hire.
Review the band once a year against fresh data, and before every hire for the same role. Robert Half projected public accounting pay in US tax and audit to rise 3.7% for 2026; a band set two years ago and never revisited is probably why the last good candidate went elsewhere. If you are planning your first employee, our guide to starting an accounting firm covers when to hire. This is general information, not employment or legal advice.
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Frequently asked questions
- How much do accountants make in Australia?
- Jobs and Skills Australia puts median full-time earnings for accountants at A$2,003 a week, about A$104,000 a year before tax, as at October 2026. Chartered accountants earn more: the CA ANZ Remuneration Survey 2025/26 reported a median of A$160,500 for full-time members in Australia. Superannuation is generally paid on top of both.
- What is the starting salary for accountants?
- In the US, Robert Half’s 2026 Salary Guide puts the public accounting associate midpoint at $65,000 in audit and $71,000 in tax. In Australia, the QILT 2025 Graduate Outcomes Survey found a median of A$74,000 for business and management graduates in full-time work, a wider group than accounting alone. For the UK, no free official source isolates trainees; the ONS 10th percentile for chartered and certified accountants, £29,557, is a floor reference rather than a starting rate.
- How much do chartered accountants earn?
- CA ANZ’s 2025/26 Remuneration Survey reported full-time medians of A$160,500 in Australia and NZ$153,000 in New Zealand. In the UK, ONS ASHE 2025 puts the full-time median for chartered and certified accountants at £50,062. The gap is mostly about who is counted: CA ANZ surveys its members, who skew senior, while ASHE counts every employee in the occupation.
- Do accountants in public practice earn less than accountants in industry?
- At the median, slightly, in the one market that measures it directly. BLS data for May 2025 shows accountants and auditors in US accounting, tax and bookkeeping firms on a median of $81,490, against $83,680 across all industries. But the top of the practice range runs higher: the 90th percentile in firms was $157,680, against $144,090 across all industries. Practice pays less early and can pay more for those who reach senior roles.
- Should a job ad for an accounting role show the salary?
- Where the law requires it, yes, and several US states do. Elsewhere it is your call, but a range filters out candidates who would never accept the role and signals that the firm has thought about the job. When you post on The Firm, the listing assistant flags unclear pay before you publish.