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Tax professionals’ salaries rise strongly but job ads slow down and applications increase, Seek data shows.
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Accounting pay grows faster than average but trails CPI
23 May 2023
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10 minute read
Accounting salaries are accelerating faster than average at 5.3 per cent a year but trail inflation, according to the latest data from job website Seek.
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Overall, advertised salaries went up 4.8 per cent over the year to April but only trades and services came close to maintaining pace with inflation, with a 6.7 per cent rise against the year-to-March CPI figure of 7 per cent.
Accountants fared better than those in banking and finance, where salaries rose 5 per cent over the year, but behind insurance and superannuation, where pay grew 5.7 per cent.
Seek managing director Kendra Banks said accounting salaries benefited from relatively rapid 0.9 per cent growth over the past three months, but there were signs the market was turning.
“Average advertised salaries in accounting have grown faster over the past quarter, now up 5.3 per cent in the year to April,” she said, “[but] job ad volumes have levelled off since the peaks of 2022, and are now 10 per cent lower than they were prior to COVID-19.
“Not all roles within the industry have been declining, however, with business services and corporate advisory roles rising 6 per cent, financial managers and controllers up 2 per cent, and bookkeeping and small practice accounting rising 1 per cent in the past quarter.”
There was also some good news for those recruiting accounting workers, she said.
“Applications per job ad have been on the rise since February, though slowly, and are up 8 per cent for the quarter, which is positive for hirers who are in need of talent.”
Seek senior economist Matt Cowgill said overall salary growth had slowed over the past three months and there was little evidence of wages driving up inflation.
“Advertised salary growth remains strong but it’s not accelerating,” he said. “We’re not seeing a price-wage spiral, where advertised salaries keep rising in response to higher inflation.”
“Although year-on-year advertised salary growth was very strong, there are some signs that it is starting to moderate. Growth in the past six months has been slower than in the six months prior.”
The Seek data revealed that advertised salaries were growing fastest for the lowest-paid job quintile, at 5.4 per cent, while the top one-fifth of salaries increased 3.6 per cent and those in the middle income band fared worst, with a 3.1 per cent rise.
“The strong growth in advertised salaries for the lowest paid group of jobs partly reflects strong demand for workers in lower-paid industries,” Seek said. “It also reflects the relatively high rise in the National Minimum Wage (5.2 per cent) and award wages (4.6-5.2 per cent) in the second half of 2022.”
Seek’s overall growth figure of 3.8 per cent was slightly higher than the ABS Wage Price Index, which showed pay rising 3.7 per cent over the year to March, and the recent budget forecast tipped wages to begin outpacing inflation next year.
“The combination of stronger nominal wages growth and easing inflation is supporting an earlier and stronger return to real wage growth,” said the Budget Strategy and Outlook paper. “Annual real wage growth is now expected to resume in early 2024 for the first time since early 2021, and slightly ahead of the October budget forecasts.
“By the June quarter of 2024, real wages are expected to grow by 0.75 per cent, helping to drive the recovery in domestic activity through 2024–25.”
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