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.)