Top Online Colleges
- Click for Recommended Degree Everest University
- Click for Recommended Degree Strayer University
- Click for Recommended Degree University of Phoenix
If you are thinking about a career as a certified public accountant, you may be curious about the CPA salary you may see in this career field. That is somewhat hard to define because every working professional makes a slightly different salary in this country. Nevertheless, you can look over some CPA statistics for the US to get a rough idea about what you may earn in the future. Here is a breakdown of some of the factors that may go into determining your certified public accountant salary in the future.
Average CPA Salary
The chart below indicates the average CPA salary levels in the united States at this time.
/Salary/Summary.png)
As you can see, there is a wide range of certified public accountant salaries that your pay may fall under in the future. Thus you have to assess your life in more detail to determine exactly what you will earn. The charts below should give you a better idea of what your pay scale may look like as a CPA.
CPA Salary by Employer
Your employer will ultimately be the person that determines your CPA salary. Popular employers in the US include:
- Deloitte & Touche LLP: $40,702 – $76,281
- Ernst and Young LLP: $45,968 – $98,347
- Grant Thornton Llp: $40,547 – $118,359
- KPMG, LLP: $47,305 – $87,440
- PricewaterhouseCoopers: $46,700 – $123,699
CPA Salary by Industry
As a CPA, you will have the ability to work in many different industries. Listed below are some of the most popular industries for CPA jobs in the country:
- Accounting, Auditing and Tax Services: $39,327 – $86,542
- Banking: $38,155 – $82,918
- Financial Services: $39,135 – $88,189
- Manufacturing and Distribution: $40,224 – $90,293
- Tax and Audit Services: $37,062 – $87,844
CPA Salary by Degree
In theory, a higher college degree will lead to a higher paying career. That is not always the case though. Here are some popular degrees that CPAs earn, along with a list of what you may make with each of them:
- Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting: $38,628 – $92,948
- Bachelor of Science in Accounting: $39,839 – $89,502
- Bachelor’s Degree: $39,667 – $91,445
- Master of Accounting: $40,080 – $79,099
- Master of Business Administration: $41,281 – $87,400
CPA Salary by School
The school you attend for your accounting degree may not have a huge impact on the amount of money you earn in the future, but it may be nice to see the certified public accountant salary chart for some of the most popular CPA schools in the country. Here is a list of some of those schools, accompanied by a list of salary levels from graduates of the schools:
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: $49,680 – $129,924
- Brigham Young University: $47,986 – $138,073
- Texas A&M University: $49,655 – $155,852
- University of Washington: $47,988 – $147,698
- University of Southern California: $55,124 – $154,495
CPA Salary by Gender
Certified public accounting is a fairly balanced field, with women making up 44% of the CPA jobs in the country at the moment. This balance is also apparent in the CPA salary levels listed above, as there is not much of a difference between genders:
- Male: $47,735 – $71,265
- Female: $46,949 – $68,012
CPA Salary by Location
Some areas of the country offer better paying CPA jobs than others based on the amount of money flowing through the economy at the time. Here are the top ten highest paying cities for CPAs, along witht eh salary you may earn in each of them:
- (1) Stamford, Connecticut: $49,022 – $146,807
- (2) Anchorage, Alaska: $45,000 – $122,927
- (3) Torrance, California: $40,547 – $100,605
- (4) Jersey City, New Jersey: $36,241 – $322,820
- (5) Providence, Rhode Island: $45,495 – $125,500
- (6) San Francisco, California: $47,652 – $102,129
- (7) Washington, D.C.: $44,974 – $95,865
- (8) Bethesda, Maryland: $48,936 – $132,767
- (9) Irvine, California: $46,720 – $99,093
- (10) San Jose, California: $43,835 – $100,000
While the exact CPA salary you could earn may not be predictable at the moment, it should fall somewhere in the ranges listed above. Assess the factors that will likely surround your employment and try to determine your salary potential from there.
Note that the information above is courtesy of PayScale.com as of December 24, 2011. It may not reflect the information at the time you read this article.
