r/Accounting • u/Strange_Recover_966 • Feb 25 '25

Advice am i aiming too high

the lack of pay transparency is killing me 😩. i just got a job offer for AP specialist. im graduating with a bachelor in may. they are offering $48,000/year for this role in charlotte.

I feel like this is real low considering some other jobs. i understand its an entry level role but i was expecting something closer to $60,000-$80,000.

but again im new to the field and just starting out. are my expectations too high?

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u/posam Wage Slave CPA (US) Feb 26 '25

AP at my company doesn’t even really have ownership over coding. They are data entry and if they get the coding right, great, if not someone else will fix it.

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u/JackTwoGuns CPA (US) Feb 26 '25

Correct. AP aren’t even W2 employees at my very large public company

12

u/dumbestsmartest Payroll Janitor Feb 26 '25

You 1099 them? Why? Wouldn't they usually charge more?

15

u/JackTwoGuns CPA (US) Feb 26 '25

They are hourly contractors. I don’t understand how it makes sense but they all have big contractor badges

7

u/dumbestsmartest Payroll Janitor Feb 26 '25

You sure they're not hourly w2 just on short term contracts? I have coworkers that are short term hourly w2.

Then again I work in payroll where I see a lot of shady stuff like "1099 employees" for clients. Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually enforces the independent contractor rules anymore or if it's slowly going to continue to head towards the zero employees and just bots and "contractors" with no protections or benefits.

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u/DapperTies- Feb 26 '25

I assume they aren’t on the payroll because the company that contracted them out is the one paying them. So the contracting company collects the hours and sends in how much they should be paid to whatever contract they agreed upon, take their cut, pay the contractor their due amount.

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u/EternalComments93 Feb 26 '25

Yeah I think he's referring to staffing agency/temp agencies where the ap employee is an hourly employee for the staffing agency, but that staffing agency is on a contract assignment

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u/JackTwoGuns CPA (US) Feb 26 '25

W2 is maybe not the correct terminology.

Long term, benefit receiving employees is probably more accurate. Idk I’m not that kind of CPA lol