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Salary surveys

Research guide

Published: 09 Oct 2018 Updated: 15 Aug 2023 Update History

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Surveys and reports on remuneration and pay across firms can help you benchmark salaries and benefits in the financial sector for accounting professionals, directors and executives. This page lists key sources for UK and international salary surveys.

ICAEW publications

Salary survey 2021
UK salary survey data for accountants, from the Business and Management magazine November 2021 issue. 

Latest salary surveys

Austin Rose Public Practice Salary Survey 2023
The latest edition of the recruitment consultancy's survey specialising in the UK public practice market. The data covers audit, general practice, business services (statutory accounts), corporate recovery and restructuring, corporate finance, forensic accounting, corporate tax, personal tax, outsourcing, payroll and company secretarial roles.

Chartered Accountants Ireland Leinster Society salary survey 2022
Annual salary survey for the accountancy profession in Ireland. The Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants is the CAI's largest district society. Previous surveys going back to 2019 are also available.

Harris Hill Salary Survey 2023
Salary survey from charity recruitment specialists Harris Hill. Provides salary ranges for a range of roles within the UK charity and not-for-profit sectors including finance.

Hays Salary Guide 2023
The latest UK salary guide from recruitment firm Hays. Includes hiring trends over the past 12 months and salary data for a wide range of roles including accountancy and finance. Requires free registration to download. An article summarising the 2022 data is available via the AccountancyCareers website - Accountancy and Finance Salary Trends 2022

Hudson Salary Guides
Global recruitment firm Hudson produces guides with salary data for a variety of job categories and industries including accounting and finance. Latest surveys include:

IMA Salary Survey 2021
The latest salary survey from IMA comparing compensation and job satisfaction levels of management accountants globally. Regional survey results are also available covering USA, China, UAE, KSA, the Middle East, Africa and India.

Michael Page Salary Guides 2023
The professional services recruitment agency Micahel Page produces UK salary guides for a number of areas including Audit, Tax and Treasury and Finance. Free registration required to download the guides.

Reed's UK salary guides 2023
Annual UK salary guides covering a number of sectors including accountancy and finance. Free registration required to download the guide.

Robert Half Finance and Accounting Salary Guide 2023
Up-to-date starting salary information and hiring trends for the finance and including accountancy sector, with UK region-specific data.

Robert Walters Salary Guide 2023
Salary survey covering a range of professional disciplines, including accounting and finance. Provides salary insights for positions in London, Birmingham and the Midlands, Manchester & the North and Milton Keynes & the South East. Free registration required to download the guide.

Wade Macdonald 2024 salary guide
Guide from recruitment company Wade Macdonald providing salary data for the Thames Valley and surrounding areas for a range of accountancy and finance roles.

Latest surveys on director and executive remuneration

Deloitte

KPMG

KPMG publishes annual surveys which include data on salary, bonuses, share plans and long-term incentives as well as a review of updated regulatory requirements and renewed remuneration guidelines.

Further surveys

The Remuneration Committee section of the ICAEW site contains further surveys on director and executive remuneration including non-executive directors fees.

Older surveys

This section provides links to older surveys and tools for the comparison of salary data over time.

Accountancy Age salary surveys
Survey previously carried out by Accountancy Age providing data on average salary and benefits for accountants in the UK. Includes information on salary by region, level, gender and whether working in business or practice. Surveys include:

Accountancy Age also published a bi-annual salary and benefits survey for the accountancy profession for a number of years. Archived editions of the survey are available for 2003, 2005, Spring 2006 and Autumn 2006.

AICPA and CIMA salary insights 2019
Tool enabling users to compare their salary to the averages of chartered global management accountants and students. Figures are based upon respondents who took part in the 2019 AICPA Salary survey.

Financial Director Salary Surveys
Financial Director magazine previously conducted an annual survey of financial directors' pay, bonuses and benefits, as well as correlating results to demographic data such as age and gender. Summaries include:

Hudson Salary guides
Surveys previously produced by global recruitment firm Hudson for the UK are available for 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 through the Internet Archive.

Data and benchmarking services

Economic Research Institute
Commercial providers of salary data through remuneration software and reports which cover the UK and some European countries. Product descriptions and free sample reports are available on the website.

IDR Pay Benchmarker
Subscription-based online tool from Incomes Data Research providing data on UK salary levels and pay awards for a wide range of jobs.

Salary Search
Specialist salary service from Croner, pitched as the UK's most comprehensive online salary database. This site allows you to find the pay and benefits of a wide range of jobs in the Reward pay database, with charges varying depending on the degree of detail required. Sample data is provided along with the option to try out the service on test data.

Online articles

The ICAEW Library provides access to a range of articles in full text from leading business, finance and management journals. Access to magazines and journals is provided to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.

Articles and books in the Library collection

To find out how you can borrow books from the Library please see our guide to borrowing books.

You can obtain copies of articles or extracts of books and reports through our document supply service.

Can't find what you're looking for?

The ICAEW Library can give you the right information from trustworthy, professional sources that aren't freely available online. Contact us for expert help with your enquiries and research.

Disclaimer

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