Lower starting salaries compared to those in other professions have long challenged efforts to recruit students into the accounting talent pipeline. Survey results released Wednesday, Sept. 10, show CPA firms boosting compensation for new graduates.
The 2025 National Management of an Accounting Practice (MAP) Survey found that new hires with master’s degrees saw starting salaries increase roughly 17% to a median $67,750 from the previous survey in 2023. Salaries for those with bachelor’s degrees rose 11% to $60,834.
The growth in starting pay for master’s graduates was strongest among firms with less than $5 million in net client fees. Those practices accounted for 81% of the 1,073 firms that completed the survey, which is conducted every two years by the AICPA’s Private Companies Practice Section and CPA.com.
The MAP Survey is the largest benchmarking study of public accounting firms. The survey reports data for the public accounting profession overall as well as firm details that are broken down by size and region. See all MAP Survey results.