Salary Survey 2019: Benefits, rises and looking ahead to 2020

If you missed it, part one of our survey breakdown can be found: here

While salary is an important and major factor when deciding whether to stay in your current role, ask for a pay rise or if it’s time to move on, it is not the end all be all. As real wages growth remains below pre-financial crisis levels, firms have been looking to increase non-salary compensation to their employees. In the second part of our look at the Accountancy Age 2019 Salary Survey, we reveal the findings related to workplace benefits and accountants’ expectations for future earnings.

Jobs with benefits

Almost all respondents (97%) to our salary survey indicated that their firm offers at least one benefit beyond their standard salary. The most common benefit was pension, 70% of those surveyed received pension contribution from their employer. The next most common benefit was health care (41%), while tied for third was the ability to buy/sell holidays and cash bonuses (25%).

Firms in general have been offering more non-cash benefits to their employees. The benefit with the biggest growth was the ride to work scheme; 7% of respondents last year indicated this benefit and it grew to 13% in 2019. Other non-traditional benefits include childcare vouchers, free food/drinks and flexible benefits are on the rise.

Those who completed the survey overall stated that the monetary value of those benefits average £9,300.

The annual review

Overall, only 13% did not report a salary raise. Of those who reported a raise, 21% received a 5% raise or more. The majority (61%) that received a raise saw their salary grow between 1-5%.

But despite the salary raise, just short of half of our respondents (47%) said that in relation to their experience/position they are paid below market rate. In comparison, 42% said they are being compensated at a fair rate and 11% said they are being paid above average.

While a plurality of accountants feel they are being paid less than the average, they are optimistic of further rises in the coming year, with two-thirds expecting another pay raise and only 1% expecting a pay cut.

Looking for more

While nearly half of accountants surveyed believe they were being paid below market rate, 55% still think they are being remunerated fairly. This is however, down from last year’s 60% which may indicate that salary rises are not keeping up with people’s salary expectations.

Furthermore, the region that has the highest percentage of respondents who say they are not being remunerated fairly is the North East at 62%, which should come to no surprise considering they have the lowest average salary of accountants in the UK.

Only 40% indicated they were interested in moving jobs in the next 12 months, the same as it was in the 2018 survey. There is also a six-point difference between men and women with 42% of men considering moving compared to 36% of women.

Nearly half responded that if they were to look for another position, their first point of contact would be a specialist recruiter. LinkedIn was a distant second with only 17% using it as their first search point.

To leave or not to leave

There was a slight increase over the past year in the number of accountants who believe they are being paid below market rate given their experience level. More accountants also believe they are not being compensated fairly. While the job search rate has remained steady over the past year, it remains to be seen if this will continue considering the downward trend in accountants’ salary satisfaction.

Benefits may be key in retaining accountants who are unsatisfied with their remuneration but given that it’s a jobseeker’s market, employee retention may be easier said than done.