Real salary data
What Accountants actually earn in 2026.
The median for Accountant is $91,914 across 18570 real salary records (H-1B visa filings and tech job postings), updated Aug 10, 2026.
01 / By source
Real salary bands, by source.
Bands come from 18570 real records. Each source has a different bias, disclosed below.
Density curve fitted to the observed quartiles (log-normal). $73,000–$120,000 contains the middle 50% of records in the best-represented source; the shape between them is an approximation.
| Source | Records | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H-1B visa filings | 18,570 | $73,000 | $91,914 | $120,000 |
- H-1B visa filings (DOL) — over-represents visa-eligible roles (typically high-skill, high-wage)
Salary data updated Aug 10, 2026. Bands are percentiles, not averages; n is the number of underlying records.
02 / By city
What Accountants earn, by city.
Real records; cities with at least 10 observations.
| City | Records | Range (p25–p75) | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | 2,229 | $90,000 – $142,646 | $110,000 |
| Chicago, IL | 814 | $73,299 – $120,000 | $92,379 |
| San Francisco, CA | 791 | $94,000 – $150,927 | $118,000 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 719 | $77,380 – $116,699 | $93,400 |
| San Jose, CA | 639 | $94,000 – $141,625 | $110,000 |
| Seattle, WA | 559 | $87,680 – $130,000 | $101,899 |
| Dallas, TX | 518 | $73,825 – $111,522 | $90,610 |
| Houston, TX | 517 | $68,000 – $106,000 | $80,000 |
| Boston, MA | 496 | $78,766 – $113,422 | $87,325 |
| Atlanta, GA | 457 | $69,001 – $104,271 | $78,000 |
| Jersey City, NJ | 272 | $92,228 – $144,000 | $113,556 |
| Irvine, CA | 229 | $75,088 – $118,049 | $92,000 |
03 / By state
What Accountants earn, by state.
| State | Records | Range (p25–p75) | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA | 4,340 | $79,498 – $134,016 | $100,000 |
| NY | 2,909 | $83,200 – $137,114 | $100,941 |
| TX | 1,824 | $70,000 – $106,475 | $83,000 |
| NJ | 1,073 | $88,000 – $142,074 | $110,000 |
| IL | 1,060 | $72,000 – $115,000 | $89,235 |
| MA | 863 | $77,000 – $114,044 | $86,750 |
| WA | 798 | $85,862 – $129,365 | $101,899 |
| GA | 712 | $62,400 – $98,792 | $75,000 |
| VA | 610 | $77,300 – $118,917 | $90,000 |
| FL | 592 | $67,038 – $107,044 | $84,702 |
| PA | 364 | $68,758 – $108,300 | $84,524 |
| OH | 321 | $62,000 – $94,351 | $75,000 |
04 / Context
How Accountants pay compares with similar roles.
| Profession | Risk | Median | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank Teller | Critical | $43,030 | -12.9% (2024–34) |
| Credit Analyst | Medium | $112,900 | -4.4% (2024–34) |
| Financial Advisor | Critical | $78,770 | +9.6% (2024–34) |
| Financial Manager | Medium | $190,000 | +14.8% (2024–34) |
| Insurance Underwriter | Critical | $98,944 | -2.6% (2024–34) |
05 / Next step
How to move up the pay band.
The skills below appear most often in higher-paid roles:
- 01Tax Preparation
- 02NetSuite
- 03Excel
- 04Payroll
- 05ERP
- udemyAccountant & Senior Accountant Interviews – Dubai Job PrepAdvanced
- udemyThe Kovel AccountantIntermediate
- udemyRestaurant Cost Accountant CertificationAdvanced
- udemyProfessional Accountant using ExcelAdvanced
- udemyCertified Internal Auditor (CIA)Intermediate
- udemyISO 22301 Internal AuditorIntermediate
- udemyQMS Auditor / Lead Auditor Course (Accredited)Intermediate
- udemyISO/IEC 17025:2017 Auditor/Lead AuditorIntermediate
06 / FAQ
Salary questions, answered.
01Why are the bands different from the BLS median?
The BLS median covers all Accountant in the US. These bands come from real records with known biases — H-1B filings skew to visa-eligible (high-skill) roles and tech postings skew to tech employers — so they sit above the national median. We disclose the source of every band.
02How often is this data updated?
The dataset refreshes weekly from live job postings and quarterly from new H-1B disclosures.