Last updated: October 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.
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Financial analyst salary in 2026: the median US financial and investment analyst earns $102,740 a year (BLS, May 2025). The middle half earn $79,290 to $133,340.
- Entry level: about $80,000 base (median Level I offer in 2026 federal filings)
- Senior financial analyst: about $106,000 base, rising to $140,000 at the most experienced wage level
- Highest-paying big state: New York, median $127,930; highest-paying metro with a large sample: San Jose, $144,910
- Outlook: +7% employment growth 2025-35, about 29,500 openings a year
These are base salaries. Bonuses come on top and vary widely by employer.
Most salary pages quote one number from a salary site. This one uses three primary sources so you can see where each figure comes from: the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025, published 2026), the Department of Labor’s H-1B labor condition application filings, which list the actual base salary offered for each job title, and Canada’s Job Bank for readers outside the US. Every number below names its source and date.
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The BLS groups financial analysts into two detailed occupations. Financial and investment analysts (SOC 13-2051) are what most people mean by “financial analyst”: corporate FP&A analysts, equity and credit researchers, and investment analysts at banks, funds and insurers. Their median annual wage was $102,740 in May 2025, or $49.40 an hour. The mean was higher, $116,800, because a minority of well-paid analysts in investment firms pull the average up. That is why this page uses the median whenever it can.
The second occupation, financial risk specialists, earned a median of $117,330. BLS also reports a combined figure for both groups, $103,570, which is the number you will see on pages that label it simply “financial analysts”. About 361,980 people worked as financial and investment analysts in May 2025.
Financial analyst salary range
The spread between the lowest- and highest-paid analysts is wide. A first-year FP&A analyst at a regional manufacturer and a senior analyst at an investment firm in New York share a job title but not a pay band.
| Percentile (US, May 2025) | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $63,720 | $30.64 |
| 25th | $79,290 | $38.12 |
| 50th (median) | $102,740 | $49.40 |
| 75th | $133,340 | $64.11 |
| 90th | $180,860 | $86.95 |
Source: BLS OEWS profile for financial and investment analysts, May 2025. Wages exclude bonuses, profit sharing and equity.
Financial analyst salary per month and per hour
BLS reports the median as $49.40 an hour. Spread over twelve months, the $102,740 median works out to about $8,560 a month before tax. An analyst at the 25th percentile ($79,290) earns about $6,610 a month, and one at the 75th percentile ($133,340) about $11,110. These are gross figures: take-home pay depends on federal and state income tax, retirement contributions and benefits, so a New York analyst and a Texas analyst on the same salary keep different amounts.
Most financial analyst jobs are salaried and exempt from overtime, so the hourly figure is a conversion BLS publishes for comparison, not how most analysts are paid. Contract and temp analysts are the exception and are usually quoted an hourly rate.
Entry-level financial analyst salary
BLS does not publish pay by years of experience, so the best public evidence for starting salaries is the federal filing data. When an employer sponsors a worker on an H-1B or similar visa, it must pay at least the higher of the actual wage for similar workers or the prevailing wage, and it files the offered salary with the Department of Labor. The filings are published every quarter.
We pulled every certified financial analyst filing with an annual salary from the fiscal 2026 file (decisions from 3 November 2025 to 30 June 2026), 1,565 in all, excluding manager and director titles. Jobs the employer classed at DOL wage Level I, the entry level, had a median base salary of $79,560 (excluding Amazon, whose filings make up about a quarter of the file; with Amazon the figure is $79,975). The middle half of entry-level offers sat between about $68,000 and $90,000.
That lines up with what analysts report. In a 2021 r/FinancialCareers thread asking where people landed their first analyst job, replies ranged from $52,000 at a manufacturer in a low-cost city and $55,000 at a hospital to $78,000 at an electric-vehicle company in Southern California, with corporate finance offers around $57,000 to $60,000 plus a bonus. Those are older and self-reported, so read them as a floor: pay has risen since.
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Senior financial analyst salary
Filings for jobs titled Senior Financial Analyst (or Sr.) had a median base salary of $106,000 (265 filings, excluding Amazon). Analysts at DOL wage Level III had a median of $115,877, and at Level IV, the most experienced level, $139,937. Amazon, the largest single filer, uses “Financial Analyst II” and “III” rather than “Senior”: its 388 filings had a median of $117,300.
Self-reported figures in a 2023 r/FPandA thread on senior analyst pay ran from about $90,000 base in a mid-cost Texas city with one year of FP&A experience to $100,000 to $102,000 base plus a 7 to 10 percent bonus in software and mid-cost cities, and about $160,000 total compensation in fintech with five years of experience. One commenter summed it up as $75,000 to $125,000 base depending on experience and cost of living, which matches the filing data.
Financial Analyst I, II and III: what the titles pay
The numerals in titles like Financial Analyst II are an employer’s own pay bands, not an industry standard, so a “II” at one company can match a “Senior” at another. The 2026 filings show what they meant in practice. Jobs titled Financial Analyst II had a median base salary of $99,112 (180 filings) and jobs titled Financial Analyst III a median of $135,000 (214 filings). Amazon filed most of them (150 of the IIs and 200 of the IIIs), so these figures mostly describe Amazon’s bands.
Outside Amazon the samples are small: 30 Financial Analyst II filings had a median of about $90,400 and 14 Financial Analyst III filings about $98,600. Financial Analyst I was rare as a title (17 filings, median $81,000), because most employers call the entry role simply “Financial Analyst”.
Financial analyst salary by experience level
The DOL assigns every visa filing one of four prevailing-wage levels, from Level I (entry) to Level IV (fully competent, the most experienced). They are the closest public proxy for pay by experience.
| Experience level (DOL wage level) | Median base salary | Middle 50% | Filings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level I (entry) | $79,560 | $67,829 to $90,000 | 327 |
| Level II (some experience) | $95,000 | $85,000 to $119,500 | 413 |
| Level III (experienced) | $115,877 | $100,000 to $141,500 | 217 |
| Level IV (fully competent) | $139,937 | $121,663 to $179,316 | 122 |
Source: DOL OFLC LCA disclosure data, fiscal 2026 Q3 file, certified financial analyst and FP&A analyst titles paid annually, Amazon excluded. Visa-sponsored hires skew toward large employers in high-cost metros, so treat these as a good guide for big-company roles rather than for every employer.
Financial analyst salary by state
Location moves pay more than almost anything else. The five states with the most financial analyst jobs pay very differently:
| State | Median annual wage | Mean annual wage | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $127,930 | $146,620 | 52,380 |
| California | $109,110 | $125,070 | 45,380 |
| Texas | $99,150 | $110,920 | 28,820 |
| Illinois | $101,180 | $110,820 | 20,520 |
| Florida | $94,490 | $103,700 | 23,900 |
The highest-paying states by median were Wyoming ($187,090), New York ($127,930), Oregon ($120,590), Massachusetts ($111,040) and Connecticut ($109,500). Wyoming’s figure comes from a very small number of jobs (BLS puts its error margin on the mean at about 17 percent), so New York is the realistic top market. Source: BLS OEWS state and area tables, May 2025.
Financial analyst salary by city
Metro-area figures from the same survey. San Francisco, San Jose and Stamford pay the most; Texas, Florida and the Midwest pay close to the national median but cost less to live in.
| Metro area | Median annual wage | Jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT | $158,310 | small market |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $144,910 | small market |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $130,520 | 9,910 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $128,930 | 53,870 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $124,790 | 6,170 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $117,520 | 13,010 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD | $108,330 | 10,930 |
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | $106,510 | 6,790 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $101,750 | 17,150 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $101,660 | 6,510 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $100,830 | 7,740 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $100,350 | 11,530 |
The visa filings show the same pattern for base offers: a median of $125,000 in California and $118,248 in New York, against $88,000 in Texas and $89,100 in Florida (excluding Amazon). New York City salaries look high on paper but buy less after rent, a point Reddit commenters make repeatedly.
Financial analyst salary by industry
Who you work for matters almost as much as where. BLS medians for the industries that employ the most financial and investment analysts, May 2025:
| Industry | Median annual wage |
|---|---|
| Securities, commodity contracts and other financial investments | $124,370 |
| Management of companies and enterprises (corporate head offices) | $101,760 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | $101,540 |
| Credit intermediation (banks and lenders) | $100,120 |
| Insurance carriers | $95,830 |
Smaller industries pay more: analysts at web search and online information companies had a median of $165,650, and at software publishers $130,160. That is the “big tech finance” premium people discuss online. Investment banking analysts are counted differently and earn far more in bonus; our investment banking salary guide covers them separately.
Financial analyst salary at big employers
Searches like “Amazon financial analyst salary” and “Google financial analyst salary” usually lead to self-reported numbers. The visa filings give an independent check, because each one states the base salary offered for a named job. These are the employers with at least ten financial analyst filings in the fiscal 2026 file:
| Employer | Median base salary | Filings |
|---|---|---|
| $156,000 | 47 | |
| Bank of America (incl. BofA Securities) | $140,000 | 43 |
| TPG | $121,181 | 13 |
| Amazon | $117,300 | 388 |
| Houlihan Lokey | $112,500 | 12 |
| JPMorgan Chase | $106,790 | 63 |
| Intuit | $143,000 | 10 |
| Cummins | $77,917 | 17 |
Three cautions. These are base salaries only, before bonus and stock, which at large tech companies and banks can add a lot. Each employer’s mix of levels differs: all 12 Houlihan Lokey filings were entry level, while Google’s spread across Levels II to IV. And visa filings cover sponsored hires, not every analyst at the company. Use the table to compare employers, not as an offer to expect. Source: DOL LCA disclosure data, fiscal 2026 Q3 file.
Base salary vs total compensation
Every figure above is base pay. BLS excludes bonuses and the visa filings record only the offered salary. In corporate finance, bonuses are usually modest: the Reddit threads cited here mention 5 to 10 percent targets as typical, sometimes with a signing bonus. At investment firms and banks, bonuses can be a large share of pay. When you compare offers, ask for the bonus target, how it was actually paid last year, and whether any equity vests.
Financial analyst salary vs related jobs
How analysts compare with neighboring careers, using BLS medians for May 2025:
| Occupation (BLS) | Median annual wage |
|---|---|
| Credit analysts | $83,510 |
| Accountants and auditors | $83,680 |
| Management analysts (closest BLS match for business analysts) | $101,860 |
| Financial and investment analysts | $102,740 |
| Personal financial advisors | $105,070 |
| Financial risk specialists | $117,330 |
| Data scientists | $120,230 |
| Software developers | $135,980 |
| Financial managers | $166,570 |
BLS has no “data analyst” or “business analyst” occupation, so be wary of comparison pages that quote one. The common upgrade path from analyst is to finance manager, which more than doubles the all-occupation median. A 2023 r/FinancialCareers thread asked why a senior analyst at Amazon earned $108,000 while new software engineers there earned $170,000. The most upvoted answers said companies pay more for roles that build what they sell, and that a corporate analyst is treated as overhead.
Does a certification raise a financial analyst’s salary?
No government survey measures the pay effect of a certification for analysts, so be careful with pages that quote a precise percentage. “Certified financial analyst” is not a single credential: people usually mean the CFA charter, which takes years and three exams, or a shorter financial modeling certificate such as CFI’s FMVA.
What a credential does reliably is help you get hired into, or promoted toward, the better-paid rows in the tables above: investment roles for the CFA, FP&A and modeling-heavy roles for the FMVA. Our FMVA salary analysis and FMVA vs CFA comparison look at that in detail. CFI’s Self-Study membership, which includes the FMVA, cost $347.90 a year on 14 October 2026 (30 percent off its $497 list price).
Job outlook for financial analysts
BLS projects employment of financial and investment analysts to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035, from 377,200 to 404,300 jobs. That is much faster than the 3 percent average for all occupations. Across all financial analyst roles BLS expects about 29,500 openings a year, most of them replacing people who retire or change careers (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). Demand tends to follow the economy: more new businesses and expansions mean more investments to evaluate.
How to increase your financial analyst salary
- Change industry before you change title. Moving from insurance or a regional bank into investment firms or a technology company is worth roughly $25,000 to $70,000 at the median, by the industry table above.
- Get to Level III faster. The jump from DOL wage Level II to Level III is about $21,000. Take ownership of a forecast, a budget line or a model that leadership uses.
- Build modeling and data skills. Three-statement models, scenario analysis, SQL and Python come up repeatedly in Reddit advice threads on moving up.
- Negotiate with data. Use the state, metro and level tables here, and ask the recruiter for the budgeted range before naming a number, which is the advice in the 2022 r/FPandA salary-expectations thread.
- Plan the next role. Senior analyst, then finance manager, is the conventional route. Our financial analyst career guide maps the steps.
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Financial analyst salary outside the US
In Canada, Job Bank’s prevailing-wage data for financial analysts (updated 19 November 2025) shows a national median of C$43.27 an hour, about C$84,000 to C$90,000 a year at 37.5 to 40 hours a week, with a low of C$28.21 and a high of C$72.36 an hour (Job Bank). Saskatchewan (C$49.00) and Alberta (C$45.27) had the highest provincial medians. We have not found a primary government source for the UK or India that matches these, so we do not quote one.
What analysts say about pay on Reddit
- Starting offers vary more than people expect. First-job answers in a 2021 r/FinancialCareers thread spanned roughly $52,000 to $78,000, depending on city and industry (2021, self-reported).
- New York pays more but not enough to offset rent. In the 2022 r/FPandA thread, several commenters put NYC financial analyst budgets with one year of experience at $75,000 to $85,000.
- Senior analyst pay depends on experience and cost of living. A 2023 r/FPandA thread put senior analyst base pay at $75,000 to $125,000.
- Revenue-generating roles pay more. The top answers in the 2023 “why are financial analysts paid so low” thread compared corporate finance to software engineering and banking.
Reddit figures are self-reported and the threads are one to nine years old, so we use them for context and rely on BLS and DOL for the numbers.
CORRECTIONS
This page previously quoted salaries by experience ($62,998 and $71,997), company salaries for Apple and the Department of Commerce, a “$80,000 to $300,000” range for certified analysts and a list naming Washington, D.C. as the highest-paying region. None of those had a source we could verify, and the regional ranking contradicts BLS data. They have been replaced with the BLS and DOL figures above.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a financial analyst make?
The median financial and investment analyst in the US earned $102,740 a year in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Half earned between $79,290 and $133,340. The lowest-paid 10 percent earned less than $63,720 and the highest-paid 10 percent more than $180,860.
What is the starting salary for a financial analyst?
Most new analysts start in the $65,000 to $90,000 range in base pay. Federal visa filings for 2026 put the median entry-level (Level I) financial analyst offer at about $80,000, and the BLS 25th percentile is $79,290. Starting pay runs higher in New York, California and Seattle and lower in smaller cities.
How much does a senior financial analyst make?
Filings for jobs titled Senior Financial Analyst had a median base salary of about $106,000 in 2026, and analysts at the two most experienced wage levels had medians of about $116,000 and $140,000. Bonuses of 5 to 10 percent are commonly reported on top of base pay.
Which state pays financial analysts the most?
By median wage, the highest-paying states in May 2025 were Wyoming ($187,090, a very small sample), New York ($127,930), Oregon ($120,590), Massachusetts ($111,040) and Connecticut ($109,500). New York also has the most financial analyst jobs of any state, about 52,380.
Do financial analysts make more than accountants?
Yes, on average. BLS reports a May 2025 median of $102,740 for financial and investment analysts against $83,680 for accountants and auditors. The gap narrows for CPAs who move into management.
Does a certification increase a financial analyst’s salary?
No government source measures a certification premium for financial analysts, so treat any precise percentage with caution. Credentials such as the CFA charter or a financial modeling certificate mainly help you get hired into, or promoted toward, the higher-paying roles shown on this page.
Is a financial analyst a good career?
For most people who like numbers and business, yes. BLS projects 7 percent employment growth from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the 3 percent average, with about 29,500 openings a year, and the median salary is roughly double the median for all occupations ($50,980).
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