- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that as of May 2010, the average annual wage for all accountants and auditors was $68,960 per year, with an average hourly wage of $33.15. Assuming a 40-hour work week, the average weekly salary for an accountant was about $1,325. The salary range for the middle 50 percent of wage-earning accountants, from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile, was from $45,900 to $78,210, or from $885.69 per week to $1,504.04 per week.
- Accountants employed full-time by a company or firm receive many benefits standard to all types of full-time employees, such as medical coverage, health and life insurance, paid annual leave, and access to a 401(k) plan. The 8 percent of American accountants who are self-employed must provide any health or medical insurance themselves, as they won't earn full-time company benefits. (See References 2, section titled "Employment") Senior accountants and other high-level accounting employees may receive enhanced benefits, including use of a company car or a corporate expense account.
- The city or geographical area where an accountant works can influence salary significantly. Accountants working in New York state earned the highest average salaries of any state, at $85,230 per year, or $1,639.03 per week, while accountants in neighboring New Jersey earned an average of $79,620 per year, or $1,531.15 per week. Florida accountants earned considerably less on average, at $63,600 a year, or $1,223.08 a week.
- Although accountants are in charge of overseeing all financial accounts and keeping records up to date, accounting clerks are the employees who perform much of the actual work of calculating financial data and updating records. The average wage for accounting clerks as of the 2010 report by the bureau was $35,340 annually, or $680 per week.
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