Finance and accounting salaries to level off in 2015

Banking Day staff
A survey-based report from Morgan McKinley has taken a stab at summarising pay levels in accounting, finance and commerce. It estimated the pay for newly qualified staff ranges from A$80,000 to $100,000.

For senior staff the range is from $90,000 to $170,000 while business heads and general managers earn from $220,000 to $350,000.

Morgan McKinley said that in late 2014 it noticed more senior roles filled, and interpreted this as a "promising sign, as this area of financial services has been particularly tight in recent years."

Skill sets in demand, either as permanent staff or on contract, "will continue to include business partnering, regulatory change, project finance, cost and return on investment reporting," Morgan McKinley said.

Less promising was the observation that most hiring was "mainly replacement" rather than new roles for team expansion. However, among respondents to the survey (totalling about 600 in all, half from financial services) more had seen pay rises than not, although the majority (58 per cent) were at the low end of the scale (one to four per cent).

For in-house risk, compliance and regulatory reporting experts, the sentiment is more upbeat: "bonus payments will increase in this area across the board," according to Morgan McKinley's report.