Free resource · updated daily
What accounting jobs actually pay
Posted pay from hundreds of intern, staff and senior accounting job postings on employers' own hiring pages. Not a survey: every figure is a range an employer published.
Typical range across firms Most individual postings Median
Which states pay more? #
Each posting is compared with the national median for its level (intern, staff or senior), so a state with more senior openings doesn't look richer than it is. Each employer counts once per state. Shown for states with 5+ postings with pay from 2+ employers; remote postings aren't counted. Not adjusted for cost of living.
Public accounting vs industry #
Big 4 vs national vs regional firms #
Public accounting firms only. Firm size follows INSIDE Public Accounting's 2026 Top 500 ranking: Big 4 (#1 to 4), National (#5 to 25), Large regional (#26 to 100), Regional (#101 to 500), Local (below the Top 500). The Big 4 usually post one national pay range that covers every office, so their ranges are wide and their midpoints can sit above what a typical offer in a lower-cost city pays.
Audit vs tax #
Public accounting and industry together. Internships are sorted by their title ("Audit Intern", "Tax Intern").
How many postings require a CPA license? #
Do postings list pay? #
States with a law requiring a pay range in job postings, in effect September 2026: California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Virginia and Washington (Connecticut from October 2026). Most exempt small employers. Postings without a state (remote or not stated) are left out.
Looking for a job, not a chart? See all the postings, filter by level, pay, cost of living and whether the employer pays for the CPA exam.
How this works: only postings that state pay are counted. Each employer counts once, at the typical midpoint of its postings, so a firm that posts one role in 50 cities can't swamp the rest. A bar covers the middle half of employers (25th to 75th percentile) and the dot is the median. The thin line behind each bar covers the middle 80% of individual postings (10th to 90th percentile), to show how much pay varies within and across firms. Intern pay is shown per hour; yearly figures are divided by 2,080 hours. A bar appears once it has at least 6 postings from at least 2 employers. Levels come from job titles. Updated every day from the same data as chatcpa.io/jobs.
Compiled by ChatCPA, a CPA exam practice bank run by Nicholas Miller, CPA. Employers: see firm seats.