Graduate salaries for accountants are 25+ years behind bankers
Grant Thornton, the accounting firm, is taking the fight to the Big Four. The Financial Times reported yesterday that it intended to offer graduates in the UK £40k ($53k), more than the Big Four – who offer around £36k ($48k) – and much more than the £30k ($40k) that mid-tier firms offer.
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There is a slight embarrassment, however – it’s a rather paltry sum. The top investment banks in the UK have paid their graduates that for more than 20 years.
According to the AGR Graduate Recruitment Survey 2003, “the highest recorded starting salary was £40,000 for graduates at one of the leading international investment banks,” although it did not name the bank that offered said package. It is possibly Merrill Lynch, which the Guardian noted in September of the year 2000 to be offering yearly salaries of £37,500 to new graduates.
The Guardian’s September 2000 article also noted that, two years after graduation, a banker could earn more than £80k ($106k) a year working at a large international investment bank like UBS. That’s not too far off what a second-year analyst earns currently as a salary, although not when including bonuses.
Research from High Fliers shows that professional graduate salaries have increased between 70% to 135% since 2002. Both consulting and accounting graduate salaries have outgrown investment banking ones; 75% and 79% vs 71%, respectively.
There’s one place where accountants can compete with bankers, however: pay for senior professionals. A Big Four partner can easily earn over £1m ($1.3m) per year, which is broadly on par with what a senior investment banker earns – those employed by European banks, at least. Senior bankers working for an American investment bank can earn a bit more than that.
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