Why do accounting majors make less than finance majors

College Majors Business Major
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<p>When accounting programs are typically more difficult and respected than finance</p>

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<p>I cannot believe this was just asked.</p>

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<p>I cant believe it’s not real butter.</p>

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<p>Bump
10characters</p>

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<p>Payscale.com is absolutely worthless, mostly for this reason:</p>

<p>From Payscale’s “methodology” notes:</p>

<p>Bachelors Only: Only employees who possess a Bachelor’s Degree and no higher degrees are included. This means Bachelor graduates who go on to earn a Master’s degree, MBA, MD, JD, PhD, or other advanced degree are not included.</p>

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<p>bthom, what do advanced degrees have to do with it?</p>

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<p>^because the question was “Why do accounting majors make less than finance majors?”</p>

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<p>I didn’t know majors made anything…only major I know of that makes money is a Major in the Armed Forces.</p>

<p>Don’t confuse a college degree (major) with a profession. A degree in a specific field is only your qualifications for entrance into a profession. Often accounting and finance overlap in the real world. If you care about money so much, get into a company and field that pays a lot of money.</p>

<p>But repeat after me, majors don’t make any money.</p>

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<p>While I’m no expert on accounting, I do know that many states require hours beyond a bachelor’s degree to become a CPA. As a result, many CPA-seeking accounting majors go to grad school for a master’s degree to earn their post-bachelors CPA hours. This means that a sample of only bachelor’s degree holders will have a disproportionately high number of non-CPA’s who tend to make less than CPA’s.</p>

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<p>I agree with OminousRun. You major is not that important, but in fact, what matters is which position you occupy. You can major in accounting and still work as a financial analyst, and make as much as any other finance major would. What OP meant was probably the difference in pay between accounting and finance positions. In that case, it is true that accounting positions offer less, which is due to the difference in revenue.</p>

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<p>Let me clarify my question if it is really bothering you guys that much:</p>

<p>Why is the average salary for people with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance higher than the average salary for people with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting?</p>

<p>The Accounting course work (at my school at least) is considered to be more difficult than Finance at the undergraduate level</p>

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<p>Because a bachelors in accounting isn’t enough to become a CPA. most CPAs have masters degrees, while finance majors typically work right after their 4 years. There’s also a risk/reward trade off, with accounting being at the lower end. Finance majors, who typically work in banks, have more money at stake (both to lose and gain). </p>

<p>So in short; because they do different jobs</p>

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<p>I would say that many accountants are essentially bookeepers. Scorekeepers.</p>

<p>A top finance guy may be able to offer more value added to a company, by coming up with money saving ideas, and with the ability to evaluate from a financial standpoint many difference business proposals. The finance guy uses the data the accountant compiled, but then might make $50 million for the company be making good use of that data.</p>

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<p>^^I’d have to disagree with you. What you are doing is the exact same thing sites like “payscale” do…lumping CPAs with bookkeepers. I do not know a single CPA that was just a bookkeeper. A lot of the bookkeepers I interact with during an audit don’t have a Bachelor’s degree, much less a masters. You can go to a Community College and come out a bookkeeper if you want. Your view of accountants is nothing more than the stereotype that accountants are bean counters sitting at a desk wearing a green visor with old school tape calculators. </p>

<p>Also, what do you mean by “top finance guy”? If you mean finance majors than I can tell you, from both my own personal experience and through research of top execs that a fairly large majority of top finance positions are held by CPAs, with Economics being a more prevalent undergrad degree than Finance. Google some of the CFOS of top F500 companies. You will see that CPAs are fairly common, with engineering majors being the the most prevalent. However, I don’t think I’ve seen any with a Bachelor’s in Finance. The most common designation for CFOs is an MBA in Finance though. </p>

<p>And just as an example, the CFO for the largest company in the country is a CPA (Wal-Mart): <a href=“http://investors.walmartstores.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=112761&p=irol-govBio&ID=188151[/url]”>http://investors.walmartstores.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=112761&p=irol-govBio&ID=188151&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The CFO of Nike is also a CPA</p>

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<p>This thread is actually very pointless. Finance as a career may pay more than a career in accounting, but it’s stupid to compare the majors. If you are good at what you do, you can make a lot of money no matter what you major.</p>

<p>By the way, floridadad55, saying all accountants are bookeepers is like saying all finance guys are tellers. Your comparison between a stereotypical accountant and a “top finance guy” is flawed because you are basically comparing a general career to someone who is very good at what he does. </p>

<p>To finish your story, your top finance guy might as well report his money saving ideas to the CFO of the company who is a CPA. </p>

<p>Every career has different levels and positions, and it’s stupid to compare apples to oranges.</p>

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<p>Pointless? Im just comparing salaries relative to difficulty of major. Nothing wrong with being curious. This isnt a thread asking whether which one is better fitting for me. Plus, arent accountants more valuable because they typically can do more than finance majors?</p>

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<p>^That’s not the reason why accountants are valuable, and it is not a legit statement to make. Whether you know or can do more depends only on you as an individual–you just have to be curious enough to learn as much as you can. In other words, you can be a finance guy and know as much, or even more, about accounting than any other major would.</p>

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<p>All accountants are advanced bookkeepers. A CPA that becomes a CFO is no longer an accountant, because their duties far exceed the scope of accounting.</p>

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<p>^wow, prepare to get flamed. Not all accountants are bookkeepers simply because there are plenty of them who don’t do bookkeeping, and some of them haven’t even done it during their whole career. However,though, accountants are being taught advanced bookkeeping at school, so you can call them advanced bookkeepers to a certain extent; but you make it sound like it is the only thing they are capable of.</p>