Industry body launches salary guide to dispel notion that accountants are paid less than their peers

A NEW accountancy salary guide aims to promote wage transparency and dispel the myth that Singapore’s accountants are paid less than their peers.

Launched by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (Isca) on Thursday (Mar 14), the guide details typical remuneration figures for accountants at different stages of their careers.

It also lists various career paths open to those with an accounting background, and their associated salaries.

Timed to coincide with the yearly university application window in March, the guide aims to encourage incoming freshmen to consider accounting as a discipline, said Yvonne Chan, chairperson of Isca’s salary and career review taskforce.

The taskforce was formed in 2023 to analyse the compensation and career growth of Singapore’s accountants. Thursday’s release is the first of three parts of a wider report, which is slated for launch in early 2025.

Enrolment in accounting courses in Singapore’s autonomous universities has fallen more than 10 per cent in the past five years, noted Chan, who is also vice-president and chief financial officer of Singapore Management University.

This has contributed to a manpower crunch within the sector, Chan told The Business Times: “Fewer and fewer people are finding this industry attractive.”

A big part of that has to do with perceived earning power, she added. “Money is not really everything in the end, but it still makes up a big component of their decisions.”

In particular, the starting wages of accounting graduates have persistently lagged those of their peers in comparable courses such as business administration.

Starting salaries are kept relatively low because newly-hired graduates receive “a lot of training” in the first few years, which costs firms “quite a lot of money”, said Chan.

This is similar to the initial training periods for doctors and lawyers, she added: “The (salary in the) first few years tends to be a bit lower – same thing for accountancy – but people don’t relate it similarly.”

Yet accountants typically have structured progression and yearly pay increments in the first few years of their career, which will help them catch up to their peers in other industries.

Through the guide, “we want to actually address some of these myths and misconceptions” about accountancy pay, said Chan.

The guide also aims to promote more wage transparency within the sector and spur firms to offer competitive wages – lest they lose their staff to competitors.

“Frankly, in the war for talent, if you pay more, you get better staff,” said Chan. “Efficiency will increase and sometimes you can do a lot more with less, rather than have a lot of (lower-paid) staff.”