[1dayatatime]

What is the standard starting salary for a college graduate in the midst of the CPA exams?

Junior Auditor: ?

Junior Tax: ?

Staff Accountant: ?

AUD - Pass
REG - Pass
BEC - Pass
FAR - Pass

[NotAnother74]

Atlanta big 4 firm 55k.

F AR - 76
B EC - 82
A UD - 77 (lost credit)/Retake 2/25
R EG - 80

[mvttie]

At a mid-sized firm in LA (Westwood) with about 150 employees.
Starting salary out of college was $50k with time and a half for overtime.

FAR - 71, 78 (Becker Self-Study)
AUD - 63, 74, 90 (Becker Self-Study + Ninja MCQ)
REG - 75 (Becker Self-Study + Ninja MCQ)
BEC - 80 (Becker Self-Study)

[B2RAD]

seems like we are all in the same ballpark with standard of livings included

Brad

AUD - 69 (1/6/16) 69 (10-4-15)
FAR - Spring 2016
BEC - 73 (11-23-15) Retake plan Spring 2016
REG - Summer 2016

[Vanessachy]

I started with 54000 as a staff accountant in a local accounting firm, in MA, small town, close to CT.

Far 10/26/2015, 64, 1/4/2016, 82
Reg 7/10/2015, 60, 2/27/2016, 86
Aud, 5/9/2016, 74 (ouch), 7/26/2016, I cannot wait to take this test again
Bec, 6/10/2016, 70,9/8 retake

[AccountantPinkHair]

With undergrad done and a few years bookkeeping experience 48k staff accountant Dallas area.

AUD - 72, 81
FAR - 71, 78
REG - 60, 78
BEC - 60, 71, 71

IF I FALL, I WILL GET BACK UP. IF I AM BEATEN, I WILL RETURN.

[04cobra]

Wow you guys are REALLY under paid. I started at the Big 4 back in 2005 with a $53k base in New Jersey. I am now in Minneapolis (no longer at the Big 4) and new college hires are starting ~57-59k

REG - 78
BEC - 83
FAR - 77
AUD - 74 (Bulls***), 85

[Zyx]

My company just hired a new graduate, no experience, private healthcare company. That person asked for $50k. We said not gonna happen and offered rage $30-35k. It is in OH, low cost living.

REG: 77 x2
BEC: 81 x3
FAR: 68 retake 10/1
AUD: 8/27

[Tawpeak]

I'm at a small firm in Texas (about 13 CPA's) and started at $42k as a staff auditor. I also had an offer at a mid-size firm in Dallas for almost $50k as a tax staff. But after considering the cost of living in Dallas, I make more where I am after considering what I'd have to pay for rent, etc. I have a masters degree.

Done.
AUD 95
FAR 86
BEC 82
REG 84

[choffner]

I'm in Columbus, OH. The larger firms (ranked top 10, but not Big 4) started their new hires at $52k in October 2015.

BEC 75
REG 81
FAR 69, 75
AUD 71, 74, 84

[kyle.brown]

When i started with my Large publicly traded company they gave me 65K in Dallas, with only my masters and working on my CPA.

FAR - Passed 4/2016
AUD - Passed 11/2015
REG - ?
BEC - 05/28/2016

[B2RAD]

yea my offer to work at a National Firm in Ann Arbor Michigan was only 53k and i took a staff job making 46k at a small level but once i pass CPA i will be at 52k so it is what it is.

i think my problem is i chose to sit for the CPA first and then finish the rest of my 150 so my job offers are limited to firms who dont mind a staff level person leaving to go to class one night a week. i want to apply to other firms but most require the 150 but all my mentors and professors said that the CPA is much harder and my college isnt going out of business tomorrow. the CPA will always be over my head when i could easily get my masters done in a year.

my goal is to have CPA done by December this year, and then finish my Masters in 2017 and i will be done with everything i want education wise at 25 years old. i may do the CFE after some time to truly enjoy life. i always feel regret enjoying life with the CPA exam and studying hanging over my head

Brad

AUD - 69 (1/6/16) 69 (10-4-15)
FAR - Spring 2016
BEC - 73 (11-23-15) Retake plan Spring 2016
REG - Summer 2016

[Anonymous]

Michigan-mid-size firm-53,500… not sure what an annual raise (in December) will be. Can anybody offer any insight to the range a raise could be? I heard 5-10% is the norm and around 13% if you get promoted.

[Anonymous]

Without a promotion, a 2-5% raise seems typical. If you take a step up, 5-10% depending on your current salary compared to the midpoint for the new title. It seems rare to get more than 10% without changing companies. Some companies even have HR policies that require upper management approval for more than 10%.

However, If you hear different numbers for your company, trust those more than generic national averages.

[Anonymous]

Big 4 in Texas $56K, with $5K bonus if you pass the CPA in your first year.

[Anonymous]

Just cause I have to throw out the other side of things, so that people know there are outliers…I'm in an area with an extremely low cost of living and extremely low wages. Based on census data, wages in my county are less than half of the national average wages. So, with that being said…

Fall 2012: Bachelor's in Accounting with non-accounting but related work experience: $8/hr, raise to $9/hr during busy season, did receive overtime

2016: Three and a half years later, I'm the Controller at a college and doing well by local standards, but still not making what most people are posting here as starting salaries. I don't want to post a specific salary figure for this job, since I'm the only person in my position at my job so it's not a thing where there's 50 others all within 2k one way or the other. However, I will say that the DOL's proposed minimum exempt salary increases would change my salary if they go into effect as anticipated, so I currently make less than the proposed minimum (which is approx $50k).

My point is not to say that I'm underpaid or anything like that. Around here, what I'm paid is reasonable for what I do. I could make more if I wasn't at an NFP, but it's within a reasonable range. My point is to demonstrate that these figures do vary quite a bit. Though the figures listed within this thread are fairly consistent, there are regional factors that can cause a reasonable expectation to be a huge outlier on a nation-wide chart. If I'd approached my first offers with the salaries from this thread in mind, I would've been laughed out of the room when I named what I expected to be paid, cause the people interviewing me probably were hoping with their 15 years' experience to soon be making what the people on here are starting out making.

(All that being said, I can rent a 3BR 2 BA house within 2 minutes of town with property for $500 a month easy, less if I shop around for a deal (or buy it for about $50k), so someone around here who makes – say – $30,000 can live quite well, whereas someone in most of the country making $30,000 would have a hard time making ends meet.)

[Author]

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