What should I expect to be earning?

One of the big missions of Big 4 Transparency is to get rid of the surprises when it comes to compensation. So in this edition of the newsletter, we’re going to take a look at what the average compensation looks like over the first 10 years of the average accounting professional’s career.

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And now for the numbers

We’re keeping it real simple for this newsletter so I’ll cut straight to it. The samples used are meant to be reflective of the average path someone deciding to pursue a career in accounting might follow, so this includes consulting, tax, audit, risk, advisory, industry accounting positions and FP&A. Data used is from 2022 and 2023 and covers the entire country, so higher cost of living cities will slightly outpace this on average and lower cost of living cities may trail this.

Having access to this information early in my career would have saved me a whole lot of shock and disappointment and likely kept me from getting discouraged at my early compensation prospects (Canadian CPA, checking in), so I hope it may help some of you know what to expect along this journey.

There is far more data covering professionals with over 10 years of experience on the website as well, but due to smaller sample sizes and wider variances I chose to keep it to the first 10 years only. If you’re curious, you can always check out more here.

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