The median financial manager salary is $166,570 a year, based on BLS May 2025 data. That’s about double what the typical accountant earns. You don’t land this job straight out of school, but the pay is a big reason many accounting graduates aim for it.
What Is the Median Financial Manager Salary?
The median is $166,570, or $80.08 an hour. The mean is $186,910, or $89.86 an hour. The mean is higher because a small group of very well-paid managers pulls it up. If you want to know what’s typical, go by the median.
BLS counted 841,710 financial managers in May 2025. That’s a big group for a management role. It includes controllers, treasurers and other finance leaders who run reporting, budgeting and cash, so you have plenty of titles to aim for.
How Wide Is the Financial Manager Salary Range?
This is the widest pay range in accounting. The lowest-paid tenth of financial managers earned under $94,310. The top tenth earned over $323,270. So you could land almost anywhere between those two.
Put those together. Even the bottom of the range, $94,310, is higher than the accountant median. And the top is more than three times the bottom. Where a manager lands depends on the size of the company, the size of the team and how much money they’re responsible for. BLS doesn’t break the data down that finely.
What Does a Financial Manager Do?
BLS lists the duties like this. You prepare financial statements, business activity reports and forecasts. You watch the financial details so the company meets legal requirements. You supervise the staff who handle reporting and budgeting, look for ways to cut costs, and analyze market trends to find room to expand. And you help management make financial decisions.
Read that list as a promotion. You start as the person who prepares the statements. Then you become the person who answers for them and decides what to do next. Our accountant career guide covers the first half of that path.
Where Does a Financial Manager Salary Run Highest?
New York has the highest state median at $219,880, with 80,810 jobs. Massachusetts is next at $206,760, then New Jersey at $199,110. The District of Columbia has $188,880, Virginia has $185,220 and Colorado has $182,690.
If you want the most openings, look at California, which has 93,310 jobs at a median of $180,770. Texas is next with 71,870 jobs at $164,860. Illinois and Florida come after. The lowest medians are Mississippi at $111,390 and West Virginia at $113,140. You’ll find every state in the table on this page.
How Do You Get to a Financial Manager Salary?
Start with the first job that sets you up best. An accounting role teaches you the statements, the close process and the audit trail, and those are what a manager has to defend.
The entry education is a bachelor’s degree, but the real path runs through experience. A common route goes from accountant to senior accountant or analyst, then to a supervisory role, then to manager.
Some people add a master’s along the way. Our guide to a master’s in accounting vs. an MBA compares the two routes. If you go the master’s route, the master’s list shows the programs side by side.
What Are the Downsides of the Job?
The pay comes with weight. A financial manager signs off on statements that lenders, owners and regulators read, and BLS lists legal compliance among the duties. A mistake an accountant would catch in review becomes the manager’s problem.
Hours can run long around closing and reporting deadlines, and you’ll spend as much time supervising people as working the numbers. If you’d rather stay hands-on with the books, the senior accountant track pays well without the staff management. Plenty of people stay there on purpose.
The other thing is timing. Nobody becomes a manager right out of school, so your first years pay at accountant levels. Our accountant salary page shows what those years look like.
What Is the Job Outlook for Financial Managers?
It’s strong. BLS projects 10 percent growth from 2025 to 2035, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. That adds 84,900 jobs, with about 65,600 openings.
Demand isn’t the hard part. The hard part is that you need years of proof before anyone hands you a team. Plan for a long climb, and use those years to build a record of clean reporting and cost savings. If you’re curious about the very top of the ladder, our chief financial officer (CFO) salary page covers it, and the same BLS group applies.
How Does a Financial Manager Salary Compare?
Accountants have a median of $83,680, and financial analysts have $102,740, per our financial analyst salary page. So the move into management adds a lot. Weigh that against the extra years and the pressure of owning the numbers.
Financial Managers Pay by State
In May 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median annual wage of $166,570 for financial managers nationwide. The middle half earned between $125,490 and $219,980. About 841,710 people held these jobs.
New York had the highest published state median at $219,880, and Mississippi the lowest at $111,390. The table lists every state where the bureau publishes a median for this occupation.
| State | Median | 10th Percentile | 90th Percentile | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $219,880 | $124,670 | $370,780 | 80,810 |
| Massachusetts | $206,760 | $120,850 | $332,490 | 26,150 |
| New Jersey | $199,110 | $130,630 | $337,130 | 32,510 |
| District of Columbia | $188,880 | $130,880 | $349,420 | 8,930 |
| Virginia | $185,220 | $108,760 | $323,300 | 20,850 |
| Colorado | $182,690 | $123,900 | $339,290 | 10,640 |
| Delaware | $181,580 | $129,930 | $321,620 | 2,810 |
| California | $180,770 | $101,820 | $341,670 | 93,310 |
| Washington | $174,840 | $115,250 | $318,450 | 12,930 |
| Connecticut | $174,830 | $98,540 | $333,370 | 20,040 |
| Rhode Island | $166,940 | $97,180 | $304,310 | 2,570 |
| Georgia | $166,790 | $94,040 | $315,890 | 21,390 |
| North Carolina | $166,780 | $100,950 | $322,090 | 22,460 |
| Illinois | $165,880 | $100,070 | $313,110 | 52,720 |
| Texas | $164,860 | $98,250 | $309,290 | 71,870 |
| Minnesota | $163,410 | $99,250 | $277,680 | 16,680 |
| South Dakota | $159,700 | $113,930 | $232,240 | 1,000 |
| Kansas | $159,380 | $97,510 | $273,640 | 5,190 |
| Maryland | $158,750 | $84,030 | $290,190 | 19,770 |
| Oregon | $156,460 | $100,890 | $277,820 | 7,610 |
| Florida | $153,280 | $79,450 | $303,790 | 48,910 |
| Utah | $150,450 | $87,550 | $282,980 | 8,860 |
| Pennsylvania | $145,610 | $83,180 | $286,240 | 32,180 |
| New Hampshire | $144,730 | $87,270 | $243,350 | 4,330 |
| Missouri | $143,460 | $86,950 | $273,420 | 13,330 |
| Tennessee | $141,010 | $83,080 | $288,750 | 17,630 |
| Ohio | $140,870 | $82,190 | $273,760 | 27,360 |
| Alabama | $140,500 | $86,340 | $256,750 | 7,200 |
| Nebraska | $140,360 | $89,990 | $227,640 | 5,630 |
| Arizona | $139,830 | $80,690 | $254,840 | 14,900 |
| Wisconsin | $139,720 | $83,100 | $236,620 | 15,530 |
| Michigan | $139,370 | $80,280 | $258,480 | 22,490 |
| South Carolina | $136,160 | $78,930 | $277,850 | 9,020 |
| North Dakota | $135,890 | $87,610 | $229,150 | 2,140 |
| Indiana | $135,840 | $80,610 | $234,710 | 12,560 |
| Hawaii | $134,210 | $79,060 | $220,190 | 3,790 |
| New Mexico | $133,700 | $90,750 | $216,360 | 2,530 |
| Maine | $133,610 | $81,700 | $231,620 | 3,120 |
| Iowa | $133,320 | $80,020 | $225,920 | 9,130 |
| Nevada | $132,490 | $75,240 | $282,460 | 8,090 |
| Oklahoma | $132,460 | $69,910 | $238,250 | 6,670 |
| Montana | $131,060 | $81,430 | $234,370 | 1,510 |
| Kentucky | $130,650 | $82,110 | $223,290 | 6,630 |
| Vermont | $128,690 | $81,230 | $220,750 | 1,790 |
| Idaho | $127,210 | $76,890 | $213,230 | 3,120 |
| Alaska | $127,030 | $85,440 | $205,080 | 2,020 |
| Louisiana | $126,800 | $78,040 | $220,870 | 7,070 |
| Wyoming | $124,910 | $64,140 | $203,230 | 730 |
| Arkansas | $116,570 | $62,780 | $225,010 | 7,120 |
| West Virginia | $113,140 | $73,260 | $199,920 | 2,610 |
| Mississippi | $111,390 | $58,250 | $210,520 | 3,470 |
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Does a Financial Manager Make?
What Degree Do You Need to Be a Financial Manager?
Is Financial Manager the Same as Controller?
Which State Pays Financial Managers the Most?
Sources
- Financial Managers, Occupational Outlook Handbook
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
All sources retrieved .