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SALARY SURVEY
Q4 2025
Counted are carrying out a quarterly survey of the salaries earned by accountants in the West Midlands. Here is our latest!
📈 Salaries are stabilising
Salaries rose sharply over the 2022/23 period and started to stabilise towards the end of 2024, this trend has continued through 2025.
One area that has seen movement is the junior and transactional levels of finance. Minimum wage has really driven wage growth at the lower levels. A 40 hour work week on minimum wage is now £25300 a year, which in turn has a knock on effect on transactional staff and entry level finance positions.
↗️ The market is tough, but is improving.
The market has absolutely been tough over the last 18 months, with it taking a particular dip when the new NI increases were announced. The new NI increases cost many companies millions of pounds, and this cost needs to be recovered somewhere.
In Q4 2025, we are seeing the market recover somewhat, but it is inconsistent and it is a fragile recovery that could easily be derailed by new external shocks (New Tax burdens, Geopolitical changes, etc).
↘️ Redundancies are increasing
Redundancies are increasing, companies are struggling under more costly debt, Higher NI, Weak sales, rising energy costs and rising material costs. Retail, Construction and Manufacturing are particularly affected.
For the market, this does see more competition for roles, and more importantly…more permanent quality candidates on very short notice periods. This can make it tougher for those on 3 month notice periods.
😖 Exemptions make it tough to understand the Part Qual market
“Part Qualified” used to be a much requested level of candidate, someone who has gone to university or completed AAT, and are now halfway through their exams.
Of course, these candidates still exist, but the level of exemptions these days make judging the market on exam passes alone, very misleading.
Two Examples:
Candidate A: Passed AAT lvl 2,3 and 4. Has taken 4 CIMA Exams, is now finally “Part qualified”. Has been in finance 2-3 years.
Candidate B: Got a 2:1 in an accredited university degree, has 9 exemptions on ACCA and just 4 exams left to qualify. Is Also part qualified, with zero work experience.
Our suggestion here is to weigh up both exams passed and skills gained.
🏢 Roles are requiring more office presence
There is no doubt about it, companies are pushing for office attendance.
Remote roles: Very rare these days & are ripe for offshoring. They are also very “sticky” roles, that people don’t often leave, and as such, do not come on the market as often.
1/2 days a week in the office: These are also dying off, they do still exist, but most are going 3 days.
3 days a week: The default position now for most.
4 days a week: An underutilised option for those who often demand 5 days. If you ask for 5 days, but struggle to attract staff, 4 days a week can move the needle quite a bit!
5 days a week: A growing trend, much harder to recruit for and candidates tend to ask for 10-15% more ££ to do the same role.
Construction and manufacturing are overwhelmingly leading the charge for “5 days” office presence, and this is leading to a talent drain as sector agnostic accountants (especially future talent) choose more flexible industries.
🏡 Candidates still overwhelmingly want hybrid working
Remote roles are by far the easiest to fill, just because of how wide the talent pool is.
Hybrid roles however still get your company access to a large talent pool.
If a role is 2 days a week in the office, we see around 95% of the local market are still interested, if the role is right.
This drops down to somewhere in the region of 85% when asking for 3 days a week and 35% when asking for 4 days a week.
Just 15% are interested in fully office based roles, but this does go up and down depending on role, industry and location.
💰 A Part qualified Accountant is now broadly £35k – £40k
💰 A Finalist is now £44k – £48k
💰 Newly Qualified Accountants are £50k – £55k (ACCA/CIMA)
💰 Practice trained NQs are £52k – £57k
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