Survey: It Pays to Have Finance Credentials

December 30, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - It's worth it for accounting, finance, and banking professionals to have a professional credential - at least in their paychecks.

A survey by CareerBank.com found that credentialed finance professionals enjoyed an average 30% more in earnings that their non-credentialed counterparts.Credentialed finance professionals, who comprised roughly half the survey’s 2,800 respondents, earned on average $70,096, compared to $53,748 for those without, according to a WebCPA report.

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Of the credentialed respondents participating in the survey, more than six in 10 (62%) held the CPA designation. The average annual salary for CPAs participating in the survey increased just over 2% from 2003, to $73,295. CPA salaries were not broken down by how long workers had been in their position, but 75% of all respondents had been working in their current position for less than five years.

Those in their positions more than five years earned 25% more ($75,858 vs. $69,791) than those tenured for under five years.

By gender, the average 2004 salary for women respondents rose nearly $2,000, to $52,012 while the average salary for men dropped by $190 to $69,848.

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