I made $23/hour when I started at a regional CPA firm. That said, I was paid overtime for hours over 8 in a day and double time over 12 in a day...which happened quite frequently...
I was a master of accounting from a top university and a CPA. My 1st big 4 tax job paid me 54K/year in 2019 plus long hours and toxic bosses. I left after 1.5 years for industry. I’ll never go back to public accounting when I have a choice.
The profession needs to pay more while also getting much more bodies in firms to be able to reduce the work hours. I worked at a Big 4 that wouldn’t pay for OT unless it was over 48 hours and approved by the partner. You’d be paid for 40 hours. From 40-48 would be unpaid and being a “team player”. That’s just one easy way to increase their margins and pockets. I’m glad that I worked on an engagement that I saw the charge out rates for the project because now, after being laid off by the same firm twice (when my son was born and a year later when my wife was getting off mat leave), it’s given me the confidence to charge those rates or even higher in my own non-CPA firm. (Although I got my MBA in Accounting, I didn’t finish the CPA requirements in Canada because they wouldn’t count my self-employment as work experience and several other red tape issues.)
70k is good for entry-level in a MCOL. The real game is to make the job so good that they will never want to leave. The more experience they get, the more efficient your firm will be. That's why you'll want to throw in those 3 weeks vacation + 1 week PTO.
I belong to the accounting club at my university and there's a new firm every week that comes in desperate for CPAs. The problem is most accounting students are getting their B.S. only to become staff accountants where the pay is similar and the work is a lot less taxing. Businesses are going to have to figure out if hiring accounting firms is worth it because the cost of their services is going to go up. Simple supply and demand.
What’s created these pipeline issues is the current generation of partners, who are mostly 5-10 years from retirement, and how they’ve mismanaged the pyramid scheme that public accounting is. Fees haven’t kept up with market costs over the years, and partners want to continue to make more themselves, so the non-equity team members have taken the beating via stagnation of wages. I remember in 2009 in undergrad we had a regional firm’s manager come into one of my classes and talk about everything PA at the time, notably his $100k salary as a recently promo’d manager. In today dollars that’s roughly $145k!! I can speak from experience, there’s experienced managers at RSM barely over the $100k mark today. There’s a lot of talk on how to fix our pipeline issues, and everyone loves to throw out making it easier/cheaper to become a CPA (which is an awful idea), but that’s just a smokescreen for what the real issue is - wages. If we as an industry paid our people like other licensed professional service industries do, we’d be in a much better spot when it comes to talent and retention.
15 years here, millenial, worked at one firm that entire time and became partner for 3 years until going out on my own this year. The "old school" ways have ruined our industry. There seems to have been a race to the bottom for pricing and being terrified to loose a client. Now we are seeing the supply amd demand that is allowing us to raise rates to where we can truly balance things, as you stated. Intoo am working amd planning to not have my staff work more than 40 hours all year. I HOPE I can keep myself near 50 hours this next spring. FINGERS CROSSED. LOL
For me personally (gen x) the tax season grind was worth it for a slow summer and fall. Since Covid I think we’ve lost that slower time. Perhaps that is why the conversation seems more prevalent now?
I am currently doing cpa pathway as a 30year old mom. I would be lying if I didn’t say this video is somewhat discouraging. I didn’t realize cpa wages were that low…and am reconsidering tbh
If it a path you want to pursue (for any reason other than money), you should still still with it. This trend in pay appears to be changing in some places. The CPA shortage is pushing wages up much faster than in the past as well. It seems common these days to see people above six figures within 4-5 years. As with most jobs, it’s especially beneficial to job hop every few years to maximize pay.
120k year is ideal considering difficulty efforts and money we spent on CPA + there are hell lot of taxes in US so 120K is worth the effort i had offer of 60K USD from USA being CMA and CPA perusing , but i chose Dubai where i got tax free 80K USD . and its lot of savings for me in India so better then USA
I was hired out of college in 2008 at $45k and raised to $51k in my first three years. Got my CPA in that period. How little starting salaries have moved, with everything that's changed, is crazy. But then, $70k was what a region firm offered me as a "beginning manager" back in 2015. I think firms have gotten away with reduced wages for a long time, especially post-recession.
Curious how the poll would break down by generation. I’m Gen X and suspect that those thinking that salary was fine would mostly be Gen X and Boomer. I thought it was fine. I wasn’t okay with the hours earlier in my career but there didn’t seem to be options in public for lesser hours. Candidly, I think Millennials got it right in questioning the sweatshop model. We X’ers just complained about it.
The low pay trend is crossing lots of industries. Auto mechanics complain a lot about pay also. Inflation is defiantly outpacing salaries in most industries. Not much you can do about it if you are not willing to run your own business. Personally I think most accountants are overpaid. I have owned a few businesses over the years and my experience is accountants suck. It is such a pain point I am planning to open an accounting firm probably in 2024. This hourly rate thing is stupid. I pay $200 per hour to get pretty bad service and results. The accounting services model is broke.
You may have rose colored glasses on for your own industry. Over the past 15 years I have been thru more accounting services than I care to admit. Accountants and CFO services. Either I have the worst luck in the world or their is a trend in the accounting industry. Pain points I have experienced are poor or no communication, missing deadlines, incomplete or just bad work. I had one accountant forget to put my wife on our tax returns and them blamed me saying I did not tell him I was married. He had my prior year tax returns. Icing on the cake he billed me for the amendment. @@taxtelegraf
