Finance staff pay rises remain buoyant

Pay rises for finance and accounts staff have fallen back over the past 12 months, but continue to be relatively buoyant compared with those for other jobs, according to CELRE salary data for 2009/10 now published exclusively on XpertHR Job Pricing.

Headline increases in basic pay fell from 4.7% in 2008 to 2.9% in 2009, while a steeper drop in bonuses meant that rises in basic pay plus bonus fell during the same time periods from 4.3% to 1.3%.

The figures are drawn from the CELRE Salary Survey of Financial Staff. The report is based on data supplied by 92 companies on 7,986 employees. Of these, 1,511 were in management roles.

The report shows that a finance director can now typically expect a basic pay package worth £142,490, while a department head earns £65,672 and an accountant £27,996.

Salary tables in the report break down salaries by:

• Company turnover (6 bands)
• Number of employees (5 bands)
• Industry (12 categories)
• Responsibility level (10 levels of seniority)
• Job function (31 areas)
• Professional qualification (11 qualifications)
• Gender
• Region (8 English regions plus Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland)

Survey data was collected at 1 September 2009.