Internal auditors earn more than external peers

INTERNAL auditors earn more than external consulting auditors, analysis by salary-bench marking site Emolument.com has found.

A study of 1,401 London salaries of internal and external auditors found that external auditors working as senior consultants were paid 21% less than internal auditors, while the gap in total compensation increases to 28% for managerial positions.

Alice Leguay, co-founder & COO at Emolument.com said: “Companies have to pay competitively to attract and retain the best staff, and also need to adapt their recruitment and retention strategies and find out what accountants want to do right now, in five years, and ten years’ time. And then help with building a career progression tailored to that individual.”

Consulting auditors do not earn bonuses (or very few do) in the early years until they get promoted to manager. Even then the bonus is only 4% of their total earnings. Internal auditors however, earn bonuses making up to 7 to 9% of total annual earnings (for junior managers and managers respectively).

In financial accounting, being employed by a company or being employed externally by a consultancy is financially irrelevant for the first five years. As accounting professionals rise through the ranks to manager level working as a consultant is 30% more lucrative.

From the junior levels to senior consultants, there is no noticeable pay difference between working for the Big 4 firm or a smaller accountancy practice.