Accountant Salary Calculator

1. Choose annual salary or hourly rate, then enter your gross pay before tax.
2. Set your hours per week and paid weeks per year. Blank fields count as 40 hours and 52 weeks, the 2,080-hour year that BLS uses.
3. Add a second offer in the same pay type to compare it. Read the band, the approximate percentile and the gap to the median.

The accountant salary calculator is a tool that places your own pay on the official US wage scale for accountants and auditors. It also converts that pay between yearly, monthly, biweekly, weekly and hourly amounts.

BLS groups accountants and auditors in one occupation, SOC code 13-2011. These workers prepare and examine financial records. They check that statements are accurate, that taxes are paid properly and on time, and that accounting systems follow accepted procedures. The code excludes tax examiners, collectors and revenue agents, who have their own code.

The tool does not predict a salary from your experience, city or CPA status. BLS publishes no multiplier for any of those, so the page applies none. You bring the pay figure, and the calculator shows where it sits.

Staff accountants, auditors, students and hiring managers use it to check an offer against national data. For a plain pay conversion with no occupation data, use the salary to hourly calculator.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates for accountants and auditors (SOC 13-2011), May 2025, read on 2026-10-02. Employment: 1,449,500 wage and salary jobs. BLS publishes every figure in this table in full; none is top-coded.

Half of accountants and auditors earn less than $83,680 and half earn more. The lowest tenth earn under $56,020. The highest tenth earn over $144,090, which is about 2.6 times the 10th percentile.

The mean of $94,750 is $11,070 above the median. High earners pull the average up, so the median is the better guide to a typical accountant.

Industries with the Most Accountant Jobs

Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll firms employ 330,500 accountants and auditors. That is about 23% of the 1,449,500 jobs in the survey.

Industries with the Highest Mean Accountant Wage

These are the five highest industry means BLS lists. Some are small employers of accountants, so a high mean there covers few jobs.

The calculator converts your pay to an hourly figure, then places it between the hourly wage points BLS publishes for accountants and auditors.

1. It finds annual pay. A salary stays as entered. An hourly rate is multiplied by your hours and weeks.
2. It divides annual pay by 12, 26 and 52 for monthly, biweekly and weekly pay.
3. It finds hourly pay. A salary is divided by the hours you work in a year.
4. It finds the two BLS hourly wage points on each side of your hourly pay. W1 and W2 are those wages, and P1 and P2 are their percentiles.
5. It estimates your percentile on a straight line between the two points, and subtracts the median to get the gap.

The comparison runs on hourly pay for a reason. BLS annual wages are hourly wages times 2,080 hours, so an hourly match treats part-time and long-hour schedules fairly.

A salary of $97,000 for 40 hours a week shows the method. It is $46.63 an hour, between the median of $40.23 and the 75th percentile of $52.80. The estimate is 50 + (46.63 - 40.23) / (52.80 - 40.23) x 25 = 62.7, so about the 63rd percentile.

Example values only. A staff accountant earns $72,000 a year for 40 hours a week, 52 paid weeks. A second employer offers $80,000.

The current salary sits in the lower-middle band. The new offer lifts pay by 11.1%, but it still falls $3,680 a year short of the national median. That tells the accountant the offer is a raise, not a top-of-market figure.

Industry

BLS mean wages for accountants differ by industry. The federal executive branch averages $124,650, which is $29,900 above the all-industry mean of $94,750. Median pay in accounting and tax preparation firms is $81,490, below the $93,290 median in finance and insurance.

State

The five highest state means are the District of Columbia at $122,680, New York at $114,070, New Jersey at $110,590, Massachusetts at $107,170 and California at $103,760. The calculator compares against the national figures only.

Licence

BLS notes that a Certified Public Accountant licence may improve job prospects. Any accountant who files a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission must hold one. BLS publishes no separate wage for CPAs, so this page shows none.

Hours

Overtime is typical at quarter ends and in tax season. Extra unpaid hours lower the real hourly rate. A $72,000 salary is $34.62 an hour at 40 hours and $27.69 at 50 hours. That moves it from about the 32nd percentile to about the 12th.

Weeks Paid

An hourly accountant paid for 50 weeks earns less than the 2,080-hour BLS year implies. At $38 an hour, 50 weeks of 40 hours gives $76,000.

Accountants and auditors earn far more than the typical US worker and slightly less than financial specialists as a group.

BLS also gives the median for the industries that employ the most accountants.

A median and a mean answer different questions. The guide to mean, median and mode explains why the two differ for pay data.

Accountants typically need a bachelor's degree in accounting or a related field, and the outlook is steady growth.

All states require CPA candidates to complete 150 semester hours of college coursework. That is 30 hours more than a usual 4-year degree. BLS expects automation of routine tasks, such as data entry, to shift the work toward advice and analysis. It does not expect lower demand overall.

The Handbook job count of 1,595,200 is higher than the 1,449,500 in the wage survey. The Handbook count includes self-employed workers, and the wage survey does not.

Checking a Job Offer

Enter the offer to see its band. An offer below the 25th percentile of $67,020 is low against national data for the occupation as a whole.

Preparing for a Pay Review

Bring the gap to the median as a fact, not a demand. The guide on how to negotiate a salary raise covers the conversation.

Comparing Hourly Contract Work

Switch to hourly for contract or seasonal tax work, and enter your paid weeks. The BLS median hourly wage is $40.23.

Planning a Budget

Use the monthly and biweekly figures as gross amounts. The salary calculator splits any salary into daily and other pay periods.

1. Reading the Mean as Typical Pay

The mean of $94,750 is above what most accountants earn. The median of $83,680 splits the group in half.

2. Expecting a CPA Figure

The BLS series mixes licensed and unlicensed accountants and auditors. No official split exists in this data.

3. Comparing a Senior Role with the Whole Occupation

The percentiles cover every level, from first-year staff to senior auditors. A manager should expect to sit above the median.

4. Counting a Bonus as Salary

BLS wages exclude year-end bonuses and profit sharing. Enter base pay to compare like with like.

5. Ignoring Busy-Season Hours

A salary earned over 50-hour weeks is a lower hourly rate. Enter your real hours to see it.

6. Using National Data for a Local Decision

State means range widely. The national median is a starting point, not a local market rate.

The conversions are exact arithmetic on your numbers. The percentile is an estimate, because BLS publishes five wage points and not the full curve.

This is an estimate built on BLS survey data. It is not a pay offer, and it is not career or financial advice. Every figure is gross, and this page does not estimate tax. The guide to gross vs net income explains what comes off before take-home pay.

The BLS median for accountants and auditors was $83,680 a year in May 2025, or $40.23 an hour. Half earned less and half earned more.

BLS does not publish pay by experience. The 10th percentile, $56,020 a year, is the closest official marker for the low end of the occupation.

The 90th percentile is $144,090 a year. One accountant in ten earns more than that. BLS gives no higher wage point for this occupation.

BLS says a CPA licence may improve job prospects, but its wage data does not separate CPAs. This page cannot give an official CPA premium.

By BLS mean wage, the federal executive branch leads at $124,650 a year. Scientific research and development services follow at $122,590.

Divide the salary by your yearly hours. At 40 hours for 52 weeks, $83,680 / 2,080 = $40.23 an hour, which matches the BLS median hourly wage.

On a 40-hour week it sits at about the 32nd percentile nationally, $11,680 a year under the median. Whether that is good depends on your state, employer and level.

No. BLS wages are straight-time gross pay. They leave out overtime pay, year-end bonuses, health insurance and retirement contributions.

No. The wage survey covers wage and salary employees only. Self-employed accountants and partners in unincorporated firms are outside it.

BLS releases OEWS estimates once a year. This page uses the May 2025 release and was last checked on 2026-10-02.

• BLS OEWS Profiles: Accountants and Auditors (SOC 13-2011) (US Bureau of Labor Statistics; May 2025 national employment, mean wage and percentile wages. Choose May 2025, then the occupation. Read 2026-10-02.)
• Occupational Outlook Handbook: Accountants and Auditors (US Bureau of Labor Statistics; duties, entry education, median pay and the 2025 to 2035 outlook. Read 2026-10-02.)
• OEWS Frequently Asked Questions (US Bureau of Labor Statistics; what counts as wages, who is surveyed, and the 2,080-hour year.)
• OEWS Data Tables (US Bureau of Labor Statistics; the May 2025 release and earlier years. Page last modified May 15, 2026.)