Role across City of Los Angeles

Senior Accountant

Maintain financial records, prepare budgets and reports, and ensure compliance with fiscal rules.

110 people hold the Senior Accountant role across 27 departments in City of Los Angeles, with a median total compensation of $149,603. Among 8 jurisdictions where this role is reported, City of Los Angeles ranks #1 by median pay.

Employees: 110
Median pay: $149,603
Departments: 27
Cross-jurisdiction: #1 of 8

Compared with the local labor market

Senior Accountant pay vs. the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area

Across all employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, the median wage for Accountants and Auditors — about 70,640 people — is $94,360. City of Los Angeles pays a median base salary of $124,020 for this role, 31% above that figure — about the 76th percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Where City of Los Angeles sits in the local pay range

10th

25th

Median

75th

90th

$60,310

$74,060

$94,360

$122,290

$154,630

City of Los Angeles median · $124,020

The bar is the range of annual wages for Accountants and Auditors across every employer in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows City of Los Angeles’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.

And across the country

Nationwide, the median wage for Accountants and Auditors — about 1,449,500 people — is $83,680. City of Los Angeles’s median base salary is 48% above that national figure, about the 81st percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.

10th

25th

Median

75th

90th

$56,020

$67,020

$83,680

$109,810

$144,090

City of Los Angeles median · $124,020

Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA range relative to the national one.

Computed over the 109 of 110 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.

Median total compensation for this role at City of Los Angeles is $149,603, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.

Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.

Compare jurisdictions

Senior Accountant pay in other jurisdictions

Where Senior Accountants are paid most

District of Columbia

$127,297 · 29

Chicago Public Schools

$118,700 · 5

City of Buffalo

$64,176 · 7

Missouri

$54,683 · 71

Johnson County, Kansas

$47,145 · 10

City of Philadelphia

$18,920 · 22

New York Public Authorities

$17,251 · 90

Median total compensation for comparable Senior Accountantroles in other jurisdictions (highest first). Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not by identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for this role.

Within City of Los Angeles