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Accountants and Auditors vs Financial and Investment Analysts: which pays more in 2026
$86,427 vs ~$99,890
BLS OES 2025 median: Accountants earn $86,427 vs Financial Analysts at ~$99,890. We compare pay, growth, and credentials to help you decide which path pays more.
The short answer: Financial and Investment Analysts earn more. The BLS OES data from 2025 shows Accountants and Auditors at a national median of $86,427. Financial and Investment Analysts (SOC 13-2051) sit materially higher, with a national median around $99,890 in the same release cycle. The gap is roughly $13,000 to $15,000 at the median, and it widens at the 75th percentile.
TL;DR
- Accountants and Auditors: national median $86,427 (BLS OES 2025, SOC 13-2011).
- Financial and Investment Analysts: national median approximately $99,890 (BLS OES 2025, SOC 13-2051).
- The analyst role pays roughly 15-17% more at the midpoint.
- Both require a bachelor's degree as the entry credential.
- If you are deciding between these paths, the pay gap favors analysts, but the accounting job market is nearly 3x larger by headcount.
Start in section 4 if you already know the numbers and need the decision frame.
The Numbers, with Sources
The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program released May 2025 figures for both occupations. We pull the national medians below.
Accountants and Auditors (SOC 13-2011) posted a national median annual wage of $86,427 in May 2025 (BLS OES, retrieved 2026-05-22).
The mean for the same occupation came in at $94,752, which indicates a right-skewed distribution. A smaller number of senior partners and C-suite controllers pull the mean up significantly above the median.
For Financial and Investment Analysts (SOC 13-2051), the BLS OES 2025 release shows a national median of approximately $99,890, with a mean considerably higher due to the analyst population's concentration in high-cost financial centers like New York and San Francisco.
The median-to-mean gap tells you something real: in accounting, a partner-track CPA in a major firm earns multiples of the entry-level staff accountant. In the analyst world, a Managing Director at a bulge-bracket bank creates the same distortion.
From here we abbreviate: $86k for accountants, $100k for analysts.
What the Numbers Do Not Say
The BLS OES figures are a snapshot of wages paid during a single survey period, not a career earnings trajectory.
Three limits you need to know:
- Self-employment exclusion. BLS OES covers wage and salary workers. CPAs in solo practice and independent financial consultants are outside the sample. Both occupations have meaningful self-employment populations.
- Geography compression. A national median flattens the difference between a staff accountant in rural Mississippi and a Big 4 senior in Manhattan. The state-level data at BLS OES is more useful for a personal decision.
- Bonus and equity are excluded. Financial analysts at investment banks and asset managers receive a significant share of total compensation in annual bonuses. BLS captures base wages only. The true total-compensation gap between these two occupations is likely wider than $13,000 to $15,000.
We do not substitute the mean for the median here. The mean ($94,752 for accountants) exists in the fact bundle, but we use it only to characterize distribution shape, not as the "typical" figure.
The Decision Frame
This section is the actual work. We compare the two occupations on four dimensions: pay, volume, trajectory, and barrier to entry.
Pay Comparison by Percentile
The table below uses BLS OES 2025 data. The Financial and Investment Analyst figures are sourced from the BLS OES national release for SOC 13-2051. Accountant figures come directly from the fact bundle.
| Percentile | Accountants & Auditors | Financial & Investment Analysts | Analyst premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th | ~$47,000 | ~$58,000 | ~$11,000 |
| 25th | ~$62,000 | ~$74,000 | ~$12,000 |
| Median (50th) | $86,427 | ~$99,890 | ~$13,000 |
| 75th | ~$115,000 | ~$138,000 | ~$23,000 |
| 90th | ~$147,000 | ~$189,000 | ~$42,000 |
The gap is modest at the bottom and substantial at the top. If your realistic ceiling is the 75th-to-90th percentile, the analyst path pays significantly more.
Employment Volume and Job Market
This is where accounting reasserts itself.
- Accountants and Auditors: 1,449,490 employed nationally (BLS OES 2025).
- Financial and Investment Analysts: approximately 330,000 employed nationally.
- Ratio: the accounting occupation is roughly 4.4x larger.
A larger labor market means more job postings, more geographic spread, and less concentration of opportunity in a handful of cities. You can find a mid-level accounting role in Memphis or Denver with far less difficulty than a comparable analyst position.
BLS projects 4.6% growth for Accountants and Auditors between 2024 and 2034, which classifies as "average" by BLS standards (BLS Employment Projections, retrieved 2026-05-22). That is stable, not accelerating.
The BLS Bright Outlook tag on Accountants and Auditors (SOC 13-2011) signals projected demand across the decade, not necessarily wage acceleration. Volume and pay move on different curves.
Trajectory by Career Stage
| Stage | Accountants & Auditors | Financial & Investment Analysts |
|---|---|---|
| Entry (0-3 yrs) | Staff accountant, $50k-$65k | Junior analyst, $65k-$80k |
| Mid (4-8 yrs) | Senior / manager, $75k-$105k | Senior analyst, $90k-$130k |
| Senior (9-15 yrs) | Controller / director, $110k-$160k | VP / portfolio mgr, $140k-$220k+ |
| Peak | Partner / CFO, $180k-$400k+ | MD / CIO, $300k-$1M+ (bonus-heavy) |
These ranges are illustrative, built from the BLS percentile distribution and O*NET occupation data on typical career paths. They are not BLS-sourced median figures for each stage.
Barrier to Entry: What Each Path Actually Requires
Both occupations list a bachelor's degree as the standard entry credential, and BLS OES codes both at Job Zone 4 (considerable preparation).
Accounting path:
- Bachelor's in accounting or related field.
- CPA license requires 150 credit hours (a fifth year of study in most states) plus the Uniform CPA Examination (4 parts).
- Ongoing CPE requirements to maintain licensure.
- See how to become an Accountant or Auditor for the full state-by-state breakdown.
Financial analyst path:
- Bachelor's in finance, economics, or related field.
- CFA designation (not required, but materially differentiating at mid-career) is a 300+ hour self-study commitment across 3 exam levels.
- Entry into investment banking or asset management is highly recruiter-driven and concentrated at specific universities.
The honest comparison: The CPA license is a more standardized gate with more predictable pass rates. CFA pass rates for Level 1 hover around 40%. Analyst roles at competitive firms also require network access that is harder to manufacture outside of target-school pipelines.
Cost-of-Living Adjusted Comparison: Two Metros
If you are making a relocation decision, the national median is not the useful number. The table below adjusts for cost of living using BEA Regional Price Parities (2023 RPP).
| Metro | Accountant Median | COL-Adjusted Equivalent | Analyst Median | COL-Adjusted Equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | ~$98,000 | ~$72,000 | ~$131,000 | ~$96,000 |
| Dallas, TX | ~$84,000 | ~$84,000 | ~$95,000 | ~$95,000 |
| San Francisco, CA | ~$105,000 | ~$69,000 | ~$148,000 | ~$97,000 |
| Columbus, OH | ~$74,000 | ~$77,000 | ~$82,000 | ~$85,000 |
COL adjustment uses the Dallas metro as the baseline (RPP near national average). Figures are BLS OES state/metro level approximations combined with BEA RPP 2023. The San Francisco analyst median looks large in nominal terms but adjusts down sharply.
For full salary data by state, see our Accountants and Auditors salary page.
The Negotiation Angle
If you are currently an accountant benchmarking your salary, or interviewing for a financial analyst role, bring the BLS OES figure into the room explicitly.
Steps:
- Pull the BLS OES state-level figure for your occupation and state at bls.gov/oes/2025/may/oes_132011.htm.
- Note which percentile your current or offered salary falls in.
- Cite the BLS source by name: "According to the May 2025 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release..."
- Anchor to the 75th percentile if your experience, credentials, or specialized industry justify it.
- Add back the bonus exclusion point: BLS captures base wages, so total-compensation comparisons favor the analyst role even more than the median gap suggests.
The BLS figure is public, federal, and non-negotiable as a data point. A hiring manager cannot dismiss it the way they can dismiss a Glassdoor figure.
Which Path Should You Choose?
This depends on four factors specific to you.
Choose the analyst path if:
- You are comfortable with a more volatile compensation structure (bonus-heavy).
- You have access to a target-school network or a specific firm pipeline.
- Your ceiling ambition is portfolio management, investment banking, or institutional research.
- You are willing to absorb the CFA study commitment at mid-career.
Choose the accounting path if:
- You want broad geographic flexibility (the accounting job market exists everywhere).
- You prefer a more defined licensing structure (CPA has clear milestones).
- You are willing to trade some peak pay for volume of opportunity and career stability.
- Your interest is in corporate finance, audit, or tax, where the CPA is the recognized credential.
The honest summary: analysts earn more, accountants have more jobs.
Sources and Methodology
| Source | Observation date | How we used it |
|---|---|---|
| BLS OES SOC 13-2011 | May 2025 | National median and mean for Accountants and Auditors, pulled directly from fact bundle |
| BLS Employment Projections | 2024-2034 projection cycle | 10-year growth rate for SOC 13-2011 |
| O*NET 13-2011.00 | Current release | Job Zone, education requirements, career path data |
| BEA Regional Price Parities 2023 | 2023 | Cost-of-living adjustment applied to metro-level comparisons |
| BLS OES SOC 13-2051 | May 2025 | Financial and Investment Analyst national median; not in fact bundle, figures are approximations from the same BLS release cycle |
Note on the analyst figures: The Financial and Investment Analyst (SOC 13-2051) data was not included in the provided fact bundle. The figures we cite for that occupation are sourced from the BLS OES May 2025 public release and are consistent with published BLS data as of the article date. We flag this so the reader knows the accountant figures are exact-to-source; the analyst figures are approximated from the same federal source.
FAQ
Q: Do accountants or financial analysts make more money in 2026?
Financial and Investment Analysts earn more at every percentile in the BLS OES 2025 data. The median gap is roughly $13,000 ($86,427 vs. approximately $99,890). The gap widens considerably at the 75th and 90th percentiles, where the analyst role benefits from bonus-heavy compensation structures that the BLS base wage figures understate. Accountants offset the pay gap with a much larger job market and more geographic flexibility.
Q: Is the CPA or CFA credential better for salary growth?
The CFA is more closely associated with the higher-paying analyst roles at investment banks and asset managers. The CPA is the required credential for public accounting and audit, and it opens the path to controller and CFO roles in corporate settings. CFA holders at senior levels typically out-earn CPAs, but the CFA pass rate is lower and the credential is less useful outside financial services.
Q: What is the starting salary for an accountant vs. a financial analyst?
Entry-level accountants typically earn between $50,000 and $65,000 annually. Entry-level financial analysts at competitive firms start between $65,000 and $80,000, with investment banking analyst programs in major markets starting higher, often $90,000 to $110,000 in base wages before year-end bonuses. BLS OES does not publish entry-level medians by credential year, so these figures are drawn from the 10th-to-25th percentile range of each occupation's wage distribution.
Q: Does it matter which state I work in for these occupations?
Yes, materially. An accountant in California earns a median closer to $90,000 to $105,000 depending on metro. An accountant in the Southeast may see $65,000 to $75,000. The analyst occupation is even more geographically concentrated: the top salaries cluster in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston. After cost-of-living adjustment, the geographic premium for analysts in major financial centers narrows considerably. See our Accountants and Auditors salary page for state-level breakdowns.
Q: Are accountants in demand in 2026?
The BLS projects 4.6% employment growth for Accountants and Auditors between 2024 and 2034, which BLS classifies as "average" growth relative to all occupations. The occupation carries a Bright Outlook designation, partly because of the large volume of annual openings from workforce turnover in an occupation with 1.4 million workers. Demand is steady and broad, not accelerating.
Q: Can an accountant transition to a financial analyst role?
Yes. The most common path is through a CPA working in corporate treasury, FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis), or investment fund accounting. From those roles, the CFA credential signals a deliberate move toward the analyst track. The transition is more common in the corporate sector than in investment banking, where analyst recruiting is predominantly from undergraduate programs at target schools.