With many fresh graduates entering the workforce in 2024 – and thousands of new matriculants going on to start their studies – a new 2024 salary survey shows the early earning potential for professional upstarts in the accounting, finance and legal sectors in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest 2024 salary survey from Robert Walters shows the earning potential for those with between 0 and 2 years of experience, reflecting fresh graduates or those starting out in their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The salaries covered range from general BCom graduates to specialised professionals – with each range showing the potential of going for higher tiers of qualification or even trying to get in at a bigger company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The data shows that a BCom graduate entering the accounting space in South Africa can expect to earn between R250,000 and R350,000 a year when starting out – roughly R21,000 to R29,000 a month, cost-to-company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This range is in line with the Quarterly Employment Survey’s assessment of the average salary in South Africa, which currently sits at R26,000 per month. This covers the entire workforce, however, including those who have been working for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For professionals, these salary ranges scale up significantly over time<\/strong><\/a> – and even for fresh faces, the opening offer can be much higher depending on the specific field they steer into. Specialisation is seen as a critical element in these fields, as these skills are in high demand<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, going into chartered accounting (CA), one can see the starting range boosted to between R350,000 and R450,000 when part-qualified and even further to between R550,000 and R750,000 when fully qualified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A fully qualified CA (SA) that sticks to the field for ten years could see their earning potential hit between R1.6 million and R2.3 million a year, the survey showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similar trends are seen across the other sectors. In the Banking and Financial Services sector, an honours-level graduate has the same starting range of R250,000 to R350,000 per year – but specialising in fields like Data Science or Risk Analysis can see a starting salary push to R500,000 and higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A standout among the starting salaries is in the Legal sector, where associates start off with much higher salaries – between R320,000 and R640,000 a year at smaller boutique firms and R640,000 to R950,000 per year at large firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The table below outlines the starting salaries for graduate professionals with 0 to 2 years of experience – ordered from the highest starting salary.<\/p>\n\n\n\nJob title<\/strong><\/td> Sector<\/strong><\/td> From<\/strong><\/td> To<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Private Equity or Corporate Finance<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R650 000<\/td> R800 000<\/td><\/tr> Investment Analyst (CA plus CFA)<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R650 000<\/td> R800 000<\/td><\/tr> Associate (Large firm)<\/td> Legal<\/td> R640 000<\/td> R940 000<\/td><\/tr> Treasury Accountant<\/td> Accounting<\/td> R600 000<\/td> R770 000<\/td><\/tr> Qualified CA (JHB)<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R600 000<\/td> R850 000<\/td><\/tr> Qualified CA (CPT)<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R600 000<\/td> R800 000<\/td><\/tr> Credit Analyst or Credit Manager (Qualified CA)<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R600 000<\/td> R800 000<\/td><\/tr> CA (SA)<\/td> Accounting<\/td> R550 000<\/td> R750 000<\/td><\/tr> Finance Manager<\/td> Accounting<\/td> R550 000<\/td> R780 000<\/td><\/tr> Credit Analyst or Credit Manager (Non-Qualified CA)<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R500 000<\/td> R650 000<\/td><\/tr> Quant Risk Analyst<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R450 000<\/td> R550 000<\/td><\/tr> CIMA \/ CGMA<\/td> Accounting<\/td> R400 000<\/td> R500 000<\/td><\/tr> Relationship Manager or Corporate Banker<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R400 000<\/td> R600 000<\/td><\/tr> Strategy Consultant<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R400 000<\/td> R500 000<\/td><\/tr> Actuary<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R400 000<\/td> R550 000<\/td><\/tr> Part-qualified CA (SA)<\/td> Accounting<\/td> R350 000<\/td> R450 000<\/td><\/tr> Tax Accountant<\/td> Accounting<\/td> R350 000<\/td> R470 000<\/td><\/tr> Equity Research Analyst (NQ)<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R350 000<\/td> R500 000<\/td><\/tr> Data Scientist<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R350 000<\/td> R500 000<\/td><\/tr> Ops Risk Manager<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R350 000<\/td> R400 000<\/td><\/tr> Associate (Boutique)<\/td> Legal<\/td> R320 000<\/td> R640 000<\/td><\/tr> Fund Accountant<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R300 000<\/td> R400 000<\/td><\/tr> AML Officer<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R300 000<\/td> R450 000<\/td><\/tr> BCom<\/td> Accounting<\/td> R250 000<\/td> R350 000<\/td><\/tr> Part-qualified CIMA<\/td> Accounting<\/td> R250 000<\/td> R300 000<\/td><\/tr> Internal Auditor<\/td> Accounting<\/td> R250 000<\/td> R420 000<\/td><\/tr> Management Consultant (Non-CA)<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R250 000<\/td> R350 000<\/td><\/tr> Graduate (Honours level)<\/td> Financial Services<\/td> R250 000<\/td> R350 000<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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