Accounting Clerk Salary: Your 2025 Guide

Accounting is the practice of compiling, assessing, and reporting financial data. Financial statements prepared by accountants are often sought by creditors or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during audits. If you’re looking to build a career in accounting, starting as an accounting clerk can provide valuable insights into the field and allow you to progress on your career path. The accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services sector offers the highest employment levels for accounting clerks at a median annual wage of $52,020 [1]. 

Discover more about accounting clerks’ job skills, salary, and career prospects, as well as the factors that can impact your earnings in this role.

What is an accounting clerk?

Accounting clerks process and compute enterprise financial data. Most importantly, accounting clerks help facilitate timely and precise record-keeping. Working alongside accountants or senior accountants, accounting clerks are also responsible for the following: 

• Conducting monthly or periodic account reconciliations

• Employing accounting software to manage financial transactions

• Assisting with payroll management

• Monitoring refunds, returns, and miscellaneous costs

• Ensuring compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)

• Documenting tax payments and relevant data for tax filing

What is GAAP? 

GAAP is a set of accounting rules standardizing financial reporting across US industries. Established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), GAAP serves as a unifying set of guidelines for corporate, nonprofit, and government agencies.

How much does an accounting clerk make?

According to multiple job listing sites, the average annual accounting clerk salary in the United States ranges from $38,683 to $53,445. The following table lists the average annual salaries provided by Zippia, Payscale, Salary.com, Glassdoor, and Indeed [2,3,4,5,6].

Factors impacting accounting clerk salary

Multiple factors can affect your salary as an accounting clerk. Discover how education, experience, skills, industry, location, and company can influence your annual income.

Education

Accounting clerks with bachelor’s degrees can make $40,533 annually [7]. An associate degree yields $39,842, while a high school diploma allows up to $39,741 per year [7]. A bachelor’s degree is the most common qualification among accounting clerks. Typical fields of study include accounting, business, and finance.

Experience

The greater your experience, the higher your income potential. The list below outlines the average base salary for accounting clerks by years of experience [5]:

• 0–1 year: $45,973

• 1–3 years: $47,849

• 4–6 years: $50,373

• 7–9 years: $52,434

• 10–14 years: $55,116

• 15 or more years: $59,173

Skills

A well-rounded skill set can improve your chances for promotions and increased compensation. The following are key skills for accounting clerks [3]: 

• Accounts payable: $19 per hour

• Accounts receivable: $19 per hour

• Data entry: $19 per hour

• Bookkeeping: $19 per hour

• Microsoft Excel: $19 per hour

Certifications

Certifications can help validate your knowledge and expertise in specialized areas of accounting, such as auditing, tax preparation, and bookkeeping. If you’re just starting out, earning certifications can also give you a competitive edge in the job market. Outlined below are notable industry-recognized certifications you may consider pursuing, based on your career goals:

• Certified Bookkeeper (CB): $59,000 [8]

• Certified Accounts Payable Professional (CAPP): $79,000 [9]

• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP): $78,000 [10]

Industry

An industry’s overall profitability and financial capacity can directly impact its salary offerings. Listed below are top-paying industries you can target as an aspiring accounting clerk [5]: 

• Legal: $61,163

• Pharmaceutical and biotechnology: $54,429

• Media and communication: $49,904

• Information technology: $49,636

• Government and public administration: $48,355

Location

Where you’re based geographically can also impact your annual income. Generally, major cities contribute to higher wages. The highest-paying cities for accounting clerks in the United States are as follows [6]:

• New York: $72,948

• Los Angeles: $61,262

• Charlotte: $58,698

• Houston: $53,012

• Miami: $52,612

Company

Larger companies, particularly those with higher revenues, tend to offer better pay. However, to get a true sense of your compensation, consider the company’s benefits, culture, and the demand for accounting skills, as these factors can significantly impact your overall pay and job satisfaction.

The following list highlights salary ranges offered by top-paying companies for accounting clerks in the United States [5]:

• DHJJ: $64,000–$96,000 

• EOG: $62,000–$97,000

• HAC: $55,000–$95,000

• Alameda County: $58,000–$84,000

Job outlook 

The employment rate for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks is likely to fall by 5 percent between 2023 and 2033 [11]. Nonetheless, an average of 174,900 annual job openings are expected during the forecast period [11]. In a more promising trend, the average yearly spend on accounting fees per consumer unit in the US has grown notably since 2020, crossing the $100 threshold for the first time in 2022 [12]. This development hints at a continued rise in demand for accounting services, which could drive further growth in the industry and potentially increase job opportunities and salaries for accounting clerks in the coming years. 

Begin your career in accounting.

The role of an accounting clerk entails overseeing financial data and the movement of funds in and out of company accounts. Consider the Accounting Data Analytics Specialization to develop the skills of data preparation, visualization, analysis, interpretation, and machine learning algorithms and their applications to real-world problems.