The median financial analyst salary is $102,740 a year, based on BLS May 2025 numbers for financial and investment analysts. That’s more than the typical accountant makes, and the spread is wider too. The bottom tenth earns under $63,720, and the top tenth earns over $180,860.
What Is the Typical Financial Analyst Salary?
The median is $102,740, or $49.40 an hour. The mean is $116,800, or $56.15 an hour. The mean runs higher because a few very well-paid analysts pull it up, so the median is the better number for what a typical analyst takes home.
BLS counted 361,980 financial and investment analysts in May 2025. There are 1,449,500 accountants and auditors, so analyst seats are far fewer, and you’ll compete harder for each one.
How Wide Is the Financial Analyst Salary Range?
Wide enough that the job title alone doesn’t tell you much. A quarter of analysts earn under $79,290. Another quarter earn over $133,340. The very bottom starts under $63,720, and the very top is over $180,860, so you can end up almost anywhere.
BLS doesn’t split pay by years of experience or by employer, so you can’t tell from the data who lands where. What you can see is that the job covers a lot of ground. BLS describes it as researching and recommending investments, evaluating financial data, following economic and business trends, and writing reports and presentations.
If you’re negotiating, use those percentiles. An offer under $79,290 is in the bottom quarter nationally. An offer near $102,740 is right in the middle. An offer above $133,340 puts you in the top quarter. Keep that in mind when a recruiter quotes you a number, because the same job title can pay very differently from one employer to the next.
What Does a Financial Analyst Do for That Pay?
Picture a Tuesday. You pull a company’s latest financial statements and set them next to several years of history. You read up on the industry and the wider economy. Then you talk with company officials about where the business is headed, and you turn it all into a report or a short presentation.
It’s a desk job built on judgment, and the pay reflects that. It’s also why the financial analyst salary beats the accountant median of $83,680. Analysts get paid to look ahead and make a recommendation. Accountants mostly record and verify what already happened.
Where Does a Financial Analyst Salary Run Highest?
Wyoming has the top median at $187,090, but only 190 analysts work there. One or two big employers can swing a number that small, so don’t plan a move around it.
The big markets tell you more. New York pays $127,930 and has 52,380 analysts. California pays $109,110 across 45,380 jobs. Massachusetts pays $111,040 and Oregon pays $120,590.
Texas has a median of $99,150 and Florida has $94,490. If you’re eyeing either one, you’ll see pay just under the national median, but both are big markets with plenty of analyst jobs. At the low end, West Virginia has a median of $69,030 and Louisiana has $75,680. The state table on this page has the rest.
How Does Accounting Lead to Financial Analyst Work?
Plenty of analysts start in accounting, because the job comes down to reading financial statements. BLS says analysts examine a company’s statements to judge its value and growth prospects. That’s the core skill of an accounting degree.
If you’re weighing the two paths, our accounting vs. finance degree guide shows what each degree trains you for. A bachelor’s in accounting gives you the statement-reading base, and some programs add analytics on top of the accounting core.
You can see the accountant side of the comparison on our accountant salary page, where the median is $83,680.
What Is the Job Outlook for Financial Analysts?
BLS projects 7 percent growth from 2025 to 2035, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. That’s 32,000 more jobs and about 29,500 openings.
The typical entry education is a bachelor’s degree, and you should expect to compete for that first role. Growth is strong, but the field is small. A master’s degree, like one from our master’s list, is one way to stand out. Another is to start in an accounting role, learn the statements from the inside, and move across.
How Can You Raise Your Financial Analyst Salary?
Two moves have data behind them. You can work in a high-paying market like New York, where the median is $127,930. Or you can move up into management, where the financial manager median is $166,570. Our financial manager salary page walks through that step.
Beyond that, build the skills the work asks for: financial modeling, clear writing, and presenting to company officials. Reports and presentations are on BLS’s list of core duties, and an analyst who explains a number well gets more responsibility.
Financial and Investment Analysts Pay by State
In May 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median annual wage of $102,740 for financial and investment analysts nationwide. The middle half earned between $79,290 and $133,340. About 361,980 people held these jobs.
Wyoming had the highest published state median at $187,090, and West Virginia the lowest at $69,030. The table lists every state where the bureau publishes a median for this occupation.
| State | Median | 10th Percentile | 90th Percentile | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wyoming | $187,090 | $64,860 | $347,540 | 190 |
| New York | $127,930 | $77,540 | $225,380 | 52,380 |
| Oregon | $120,590 | $77,150 | $203,550 | 2,820 |
| Massachusetts | $111,040 | $77,940 | $205,320 | 14,790 |
| Connecticut | $109,500 | $75,470 | $213,120 | |
| California | $109,110 | $72,840 | $198,280 | 45,380 |
| New Jersey | $108,610 | $71,650 | $179,770 | 10,380 |
| Washington | $107,210 | $64,810 | $167,790 | 8,820 |
| District of Columbia | $105,780 | $67,620 | $207,330 | 3,670 |
| Virginia | $105,490 | $67,540 | $176,690 | 10,410 |
| Colorado | $103,850 | $71,590 | $171,570 | 8,040 |
| Minnesota | $102,990 | $65,290 | $161,580 | 7,450 |
| North Carolina | $102,390 | $61,670 | $167,250 | 12,710 |
| Alaska | $102,240 | $68,170 | $237,230 | 190 |
| Delaware | $101,800 | $68,530 | $168,450 | 2,290 |
| Illinois | $101,180 | $64,700 | $166,090 | 20,520 |
| Idaho | $100,830 | $61,660 | $145,670 | 680 |
| Rhode Island | $100,550 | $63,050 | $175,270 | 1,790 |
| Maryland | $100,370 | $64,690 | $183,320 | 5,360 |
| Georgia | $99,420 | $66,140 | $167,700 | 9,780 |
| Montana | $99,190 | $59,000 | $165,100 | 440 |
| South Dakota | $99,150 | $55,010 | $239,700 | 820 |
| Texas | $99,150 | $63,230 | $169,990 | 28,820 |
| Vermont | $99,090 | $68,710 | $186,570 | 230 |
| Missouri | $98,420 | $60,500 | $160,540 | 4,430 |
| Wisconsin | $95,570 | $61,900 | $152,460 | 5,430 |
| Michigan | $95,420 | $63,180 | $154,230 | 7,400 |
| Hawaii | $94,640 | $63,080 | $138,830 | 600 |
| Florida | $94,490 | $60,620 | $155,470 | 23,900 |
| Ohio | $94,280 | $57,870 | $142,420 | 9,760 |
| South Carolina | $93,670 | $58,420 | $157,700 | 3,600 |
| Arizona | $93,540 | $62,340 | $161,870 | 5,940 |
| Tennessee | $92,990 | $50,130 | $140,870 | 4,910 |
| Iowa | $92,370 | $62,310 | $135,890 | 2,000 |
| Utah | $91,370 | $57,390 | $154,230 | 4,510 |
| Alabama | $91,290 | $52,200 | $157,320 | 3,410 |
| Maine | $88,320 | $64,110 | $133,270 | 710 |
| New Mexico | $87,630 | $63,630 | $143,660 | 930 |
| Nebraska | $85,320 | $64,380 | $127,170 | |
| Kansas | $84,860 | $58,680 | $128,750 | 1,870 |
| Pennsylvania | $84,460 | $57,260 | $155,320 | 13,310 |
| Nevada | $83,430 | $62,460 | $125,010 | 1,830 |
| New Hampshire | $82,520 | $48,660 | $160,010 | 580 |
| Indiana | $81,760 | $55,550 | $127,550 | 3,680 |
| Kentucky | $81,660 | $49,930 | $136,480 | 2,460 |
| Arkansas | $81,110 | $48,850 | $137,210 | 1,390 |
| Oklahoma | $79,640 | $53,260 | $138,910 | 1,550 |
| Mississippi | $79,580 | $50,290 | $132,440 | 720 |
| North Dakota | $78,170 | $51,680 | $131,520 | 300 |
| Louisiana | $75,680 | $49,550 | $132,230 | 1,450 |
| West Virginia | $69,030 | $47,340 | $119,240 | 400 |
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Average Financial Analyst Salary?
Do Financial Analysts Need an Accounting Degree?
What Does an Entry Level Financial Analyst Earn?
Is Financial Analyst a Growing Job?
Sources
- Financial Analysts, Occupational Outlook Handbook
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
All sources retrieved .