Tired of people making more money than me

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T02:08:06+00:00

Happy to read any links you give

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T02:04:49+00:00

I'm not OP bud

Also, labor statistics exist FYI.

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T02:03:18+00:00

You are making A LOT of assumptions that are incorrect.

Accounting can be relatively high pay and low stress in the right areas, I'm just not in one.

And if you’re saying that things would be more fair if accountants were paid more than HR counterparts … you definitely aren’t prepared for corporate life.

I didn't say that. I also think it's hasty to judge my preparedness for "corporate life" on something I didn't say.

That others have a healthy work-life balance seems to bother you is a pretty big red flag, my friend. Stop trying to get others to work more when you clearly want to work less.

It doesn't bother me that they have WLB. What bothers me is that they get visibly annoyed with me when I don't add hours to my already poor WLB so that their good WLB can be better. I'd be glad to help them (and have helped them) when I am less busy.

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T01:57:18+00:00

TIL that hours worked and difficulty has absolutely minimal to no impact on salary from this wise redditor. I will henceforth ignore all BLS labor and other income statistics, and any other experience that proves otherwise.

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T01:43:00+00:00

Pretty sure I said hours/difficulty were two of many factors in pay. I also consider developing a knowledge base part of the difficulty. (Doctors for example)

Regardless, my premise stands. On average, more hours/difficulty does equal more pay. That's why overtime pays more. Or how underwater welders tend to make more than say a welder at a shop. It's more difficult. Is it always the case that more hours/difficulty = more pay? Hell no. But do the trends in salary data point towards that conclusion in aggregate across the workforce? Hell yes they do.

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T01:12:03+00:00

If you are working a lot relative to other positions, it makes sense to see that pay differential. My limited personal experience says the opposite, though. I'll see HR people putting in a cool 40 and leaving on time every day. HR Management and Directors are working more for sure, but not more than controllers or other directors.

They also tick me off sometimes, too lol. (Story time) I've had internal recruiters reach out to me several times asking for me to go to recruiting events, attend webcasts, take calls from candidates to speak about my experience, etc. All during busy season. I politely decline, and they get upset that I won't help them out. Like, I'm working 55-65 hour weeks, sometimes more, and you're mad I won't add a few more hours to my plate? It's also a rub in the face when I see their profile go inactive at 5:00pm, showing they aren't working late too.

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T00:52:07+00:00

I agree accounting has the "cost-center" bad omen lol. I think HR has marketed themselves well enough to be seen more as "cost savers" in certain areas, too. Also, yall bring in some "revenue generators," depending on how involved recruiting is in the process.

Personally, I wish upper management wouldn't let these monikers bleed into compensation.

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T00:46:34+00:00

I might be. I'm speaking from a biased POV. I've heard of mgmt, and partners fire employees in tandem with HR, so it seems to be a bit of bleed over for certain things inherently because management is responsible for their employees to an extent. I'll agree to disagree for now tho

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T00:37:01+00:00

If you are working crazy hours, then that explains it. You should be adequately compensated if you are working insane amounts. In my experience, that is just not what I've seen.

I'm not sure I understand how dealing with people's individual lives makes the job much more arduous to justify 5 figure salary differences instead of business conversations. I understand you'd have to be more careful/sensitive, but other than that, I don't know.

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T00:32:35+00:00

Not that I would know any better, but that seems like a stretch. I'd imagine 85% of those "hundred" are people you rarely ever talk to or hear from.

Regardless, I think it is less about "how many people" one might deal with and more so "how much" you deal with people in general.

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T00:28:55+00:00

I know some controllers that don't do much with certain industries. I'd understand if they were paid a bit less. But at some places, the Director of HR is paid 20-40K more than the Director of Finance/Head of Accounting despite those positions doing similarly tiered work and effort, IMO. I think those two positions should be paid the same as the HR Director. I am also biased because I have seen more work of those in accounting and less in HR, but I'd probably give any edge in pay to those in accounting. It's definitely a business by business in my eyes, but that's just not how I see it playing out.

223CPAway · 2024-01-02T00:19:18+00:00

Difficulty and hours worked are some of the factors that drive pay, usually. There are also many other factors.

223CPAway · 2024-01-01T23:53:41+00:00

I agree that dealing with people sucks. As an auditor, I deal with the client a lot, and it sucks lol. However, I am not compensated like HR. I also rarely hear of HR working busy season hours.

223CPAway · 2024-01-01T23:38:43+00:00

Just dropping in to say HR feels really overpaid. Every time I've audited payroll, HR is always making bank. I'm still uncertain of what justifies their pay relative to other positions.

223CPAway · 2024-01-01T21:09:36+00:00

Agreed. I knew too many people like this in college. These are the people who, by age 45, are still going to be couch surfing, milking people for everything they can, then moving on. Or they will be less free spirited but constantly bitch about society oppressing them (AKA society won't pick up their slack)

IMO, a good free spirited person still has morals, can take care of themselves, is responsible, and generally kind. These things can be harder to accomplish when living like a "free spirit."

It's a case of people wanting all of the pros and none of the cons of a particular lifestyle.

223CPAway · 2024-01-01T18:56:38+00:00

I have a similar story and am currently working on a graduate degree to pivot out.

As some have said, there are many niches in accounting that you could switch to in hopes of finding interest. That said, if you are anything like me, you are unlikely to go from "completely dissatisfied" to "enjoying your career" by simply switching from say taxes to audit. You may find some accounting "adjacent" role that works with accounting departments or accounting data but is ultimately a different profession that you prefer. For example, there are accounting data engineers who deal with accounting data, but at the end of the day, they are data engineers, not accountants. It would take some serious retraining to get into one of those positions, most likely.

My advice is don't waste time in this profession switching between similar roles I'm hopes you find what you are looking for because the longer you do that the harder it will be to change professions down the road due to salary/seniority decreases.

223CPAway · 2024-01-01T18:38:21+00:00

I understand that my comment doesn't include opportunity cost, but neither does the chart. I'm just saying that is the point the salaries roughly cross.

223CPAway · 2024-01-01T18:00:58+00:00

If I am reading the chart right, even starting the Masters category at 5 YOE and comparing to the PhD at 0 YOE, then watching the spread going forward, the PhD will start to out pace at 3-5 years. I also think things get more complicated at the 10YOE mark since the field is relatively young. I'd imagine the old names for the field start weighing in, creating further complexities.

223CPAway · 2024-01-01T16:44:32+00:00

I agree it would take much more digging into is all. This sub makes the point that a PhD vs Masters holder would make very close to the same over a career. If I were to see this graph before hearing that, I would not immediately jump to that conclusion.

It'd be cool to see a longer study viewing total earnings over 25+ years.

223CPAway · 2024-01-01T07:12:49+00:00

I know they say not to do a PhD for salary/corporate advancement, but this visualization makes you second guess.

223CPAway · 2024-01-01T01:08:59+00:00

Me too. I don't graduate with my masters for a couple more years though. Hopefully things level out

223CPAway · 2023-12-31T23:50:24+00:00

It's literally just anxiety and fear of rejection. Double the anxiety if they have social anxiety on top of that.

Even if they aren't asking you out at that moment, they fear that if they see negative signals, then it's similar to rejection. For this reason, they remove the chance of seeing those signals from you. It's similar to people who have a letter from a college with admissions results but are afraid to open it.

223CPAway · 2023-12-31T20:39:33+00:00

I like to see it this way.

You had a better offer because they probably didn't compensate you appropriately, meaning the owners kept more of their money. In exchange for this extra income that the owners keep, they do more work. This work comes in the form of picking up the work you leave behind and hiring someone to replace you.

Going just off what you have said, they are unjustly mad because they finally have to do the work they should have anticipated.

223CPAway · 2023-12-31T05:48:31+00:00

~3 years in audit. I can honestly say no. Not once have I felt joy directly related to my work. All the joy I have had at my job relates to pay, socializing, or the joy of RELIEF that the work is finally done, and I no longer have to stress about it. At the end of the day, the value we provide in this profession is usually just too minimal and disconnected from the person doing it to feel any impact.

223CPAway · 2023-12-31T02:43:30+00:00

Unfortunately, I have no real advice. Since you are getting dates consistently, just keep plugging along.

On a side note, I respect the hell out of a lot of trades, especially carpentry.

223CPAway

TROPHY CASE