Corporate finance professionals at all job levels received base salary increases of 5% on average during 2022, up from 4.4% in 2021, the largest increase in the past 10 years, according to the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP).
Management-level finance employees, such as directors of treasury, finance, and FP&A, earned the largest base salary hike on average — 5.3% — while staff-level personnel, such as senior treasury analysts and senior accountants, received the lowest average salary raise at 4.8%. On average, executive-level employees, including CFOs, received base salary increases of 5%.
Among the executive-tier positions, treasurers saw the highest gain in average base salary — 5.7% — compared with 4.2% for CFOs. Within the management tier, employers awarded managers of finance/FP&A the largest base salary raise, 6.3% on average, followed by accounting managers at 6.2%. Among staff positions, base salaries for treasury analysts rose the most, at an average of 5.4%.
In comparison, core PCE inflation peaked at 5.3% in March 2022.
“Given the competitive job market, the increase in base salaries across all tiers of the treasury and finance profession is encouraging,” said Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP.
The data comes from the AFP’s annual compensation report, which gathers data on total pay earned in calendar year 2022 and data on base salaries in effect as of January 1, 2023.
More than 1,000 professionals in the 19 different finance job titles responded to the February survey. About half of the employers represented had fewer than 1,000 employees and 57% had less than $1 billion in revenue.
CFOs' average reported base salary on January 1, 2023, was $256,038, and their average bonus was $94,262, according to respondents. CFOs in the South earned the highest base salary based on geographic region, while CFOs working in the largest U.S. cities reported base salaries $20,000 higher than the overall average. By industry, CFOs in technology services earned the highest base for 2023, at $263,079.
CFOs led all titles in average 2022 bonus, at $94,262, followed by treasurers at $87,560. The average bonus at the executive level was $69,662, or about 34% of the base salary, largely consistent with previous years.
At the management level, assistant treasurers earned the largest average bonus, at $45,969, and at the staff level, FP&A senior analysts led all job titles with an average bonus of $9,969.
The lowest average 2022 bonuses were for controllers ($27,033), accounting managers ($9,613), and accountants ($3,268).
Companies based performance bonuses on traditional measures for the most part: 59% used operating income or EBITDA targets; 41% profit or increased profit targets; 40% “completion of specific projects”; and 32% sales or increased revenue targets.
In other AFP compensation report findings:
81% of respondents said increased job responsibility was the primary factor in the potential for promotion, followed by company growth at 61%.
Executives with MBAs earned 13% larger base salaries than executives without an MBA, and managers with MBAs earned 16% more.
Nearly 60% of treasury and finance professionals agreed that their organizations face a talent shortage within their functions.
The biggest challenges for treasury and finance professionals in their current roles are limited resources (42%), volume of work (40%), and recruitment of staffing/personnel (37%).
