The Real Pay Problem In Accounting Is the Middle
Controllers have been the hardest accounting role to fill for four years running. That’s a pipeline problem, not a hiring hiccup.
So where’s the pipeline breaking down? New salary data from Accounting Today has the answer, and it's not the story we usually tell about pay in accounting.
My co-host, David Leary, and I dug into the numbers on Episode 499 of The Accounting Podcast.
The promotion that used to mean something doesn't anymore
Moving from associate to senior used to come with a real pay bump. Not this year.
In New York, associate pay now averages $105,000 and senior pay averages $108,000. That's a 3% raise for taking on more responsibility. It’s the same story in Ontario, where professionals get about a 4% jump from associate to senior.
Compare that to the manager level, where salaries jump by $20,000 to $40,000. Connecticut, Virginia, and New York all report manager averages above $139,000.
That's not a promotion bump. That's a different pay grade entirely.
So what’s going on?
Entry-level salaries had to rise because firms couldn't attract talent without it. Partners keep getting richer too, with equity partner compensation now averaging $839,000 industry-wide.
But the senior level, the people who've already put in a few years and are grinding toward manager, are stuck in between. They’re not new enough for the entry-level raises and not senior enough for the manager money.
As David put it during the episode, partners pocket higher profits, entry-level staff get slightly higher salaries, and the senior staff stay where they are.
Two forces are squeezing that middle tier
Offshoring and AI eat into the work seniors used to do. Less pressure on that work means less pressure on firms to pay up to keep the people doing it.
Meanwhile, those seniors are the people who should be developing into the controllers companies desperately need.
But employers say they can't find controllers and assistant controllers with institutional knowledge, technical depth, and the judgment to influence executive decisions.
That's not an entry-level skill set. It takes years to build, and accounting firms underpay those years, driving talent out of the profession.
Think of it like a bridge with a weak middle span. You can reinforce both ends all you want.
Strengthen the anchor points, widen the approach lanes, make the entrance as inviting as possible. None of it matters if the section connecting them can't bear the weight.
Firms are so focused on winning the entry-level hiring war and keeping partners happy that they're ignoring the span holding the whole structure together.
Corporate finance already figured this out
Average salary increases in corporate finance average 6.7% for executives, 6.2% for directors, and 5.7% for clerical staff, according to Controllers Council.
Thirty-eight percent of finance leaders say they plan to increase hiring this year, up from 24% last year.
Sixty-one percent report a talent shortage, up from 46%.
Corporate pay is up across the board because they recognize the shortage. Public accounting still pays up at the edges and hopes the middle holds.
It won't.
If you're a senior with three or four years in, why wait around for a manager title that may or may not exist by the time you get there? You'd rather jump to corporate now, where the raises are already showing up, or leave the profession altogether.
Every senior who leaves the profession entirely is one less future controller, meaning the talent shortage only gets worse.
What firms need to do
Stop treating the associate-to-senior promotion as a formality. If that promotion helps retain the people who will eventually run your client engagements or become your best clients' controllers, the pay needs to reflect it.
Right now, the data shows it doesn't.
