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Salary surveys

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. On this page you can access a range of articles, books and online resources providing quick links to surveys, rankings and reports.

What's on this page?

  • ICAEW salary survey
  • Useful links
  • Online articles
  • Books and articles from the library

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

Useful links

Accountancy Age salary surveys
Annual survey 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 previously 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.

CIMA previously published global and country-specific salary surveys for qualified and part-qualified with data on salaries and bonuses paid. Surveys include:

Austin Rose Public Practice Salary Survey
The latest 2021 edition of the recruitment consultancy's survey specialising in the 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.

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.

Financial Director special reports and research
Financial Director magazine conducts an annual survey of financial directors' pay, bonuses and benefits, as well as correlating results to demographic data such as age and gender. The latest survey summaries include:

Harris Hill Salary Survey 2019
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
The latest 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 and benefit data for a variety of job categories and industries. Countries covered include:

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

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

IMA Salary Surveys
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.

KPMG's Guide to Directors' Remuneration 2021
An overview of directors' remuneration in FTSE 350 companies published annually by KPMG. Previous guides include:

Michael Page financial sector employee survey
The professional services recruitment agency conducts an annual financial sector salary survey.

New Bridge Street
Executive remuneration consultancy firm offering annual reports on directors' remuneration across a number of FTSE indices and industry sectors.

PwC Executive and management reward survey
PwC publish an annual executive and management reward survey, previously called 'Executive compensation review', which looks at key issues in remuneration practice across the UK. Previous issues include:

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

Robert Walters salary surveys
Comprehensive global salary survey covering a range of professional sectors, including accountancy. Surveys are available for individual countries across the world.

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.

Chartered Accountants Ireland Leinster Society salary survey
Annual salary survey for the accountancy profession in Ireland. The Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants is the CAI's largest district society.

Wade Macdonald 2023 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.

Online articles

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides access to a range of articles in full text from leading business, finance and management journals. This resource is available to ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users.

You will need to be logged-in to the website to gain full access to the range of articles available online.

Articles and books in the Library collection

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

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

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