CPAs Can Earn $200,000 — But Tax Hiring Peaks in October

Certified public accountants with four years of experience can earn total compensation of up to $200,000, according to Investopedia — and a shortage of 340,000 tax accountants is pushing salaries higher still. The path to that money, however, runs through a hiring window that may have already closed for this season, and through a credential that demands years of investment.

Tax work earned two spots on Monster's 2026 Seasonal Hiring Index, which names tax associates and tax experts among 13 titles with significant seasonal posting activity in 2025. The busy season for tax accountants runs from late January through April 15, driven by individual and corporate tax deadlines.

What do the numbers say about pay?

ZipRecruiter puts the average U.S. salary for tax associates at $33.40 an hour — roughly $69,000 a year for full-time work. Tax experts make $45.67 an hour, or about $95,000 annually at the same pace. The six-figure ceiling arrives with the CPA license.

The shortage underpinning these figures is severe. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted a shortfall of 340,000 tax accountants in 2024, and employers are still struggling to recruit. Companies surveyed by Personiv, a global finance and accounting outsourcing firm, reported an average of 17 unfilled accounting and finance positions in 2026, up from five a year earlier — more than a threefold increase in twelve months.

For context on how far the field has fallen out of favor, the framing is generational: Millennials wrote off tax accounting, and Gen Z now has a reason to give it a second look as six-figure earnings and the talent shortage drive a spike in salaries for tax experts.

What does Monster actually promise?

"Seasonal work is more than a short-term paycheck; it's often the start of a longer career journey," the Monster report said. The company added that many employers use seasonal roles as a testing ground for permanent ones.

That claim deserves scrutiny. A seasonal tax role could lead toward a full-time career with six-figure earning potential, Fortune reports — "could" carrying real weight in that sentence. The bigger paychecks come with a higher bar to entry. Tax accountants typically need at least a bachelor's degree, and the CPA license that unlocks the best-paid roles requires extensive time and money. CPAs provide services including tax preparation and financial planning.

Has the hiring window already closed?

Here is the catch Monster's own data reveals. Seasonal job postings rose 44% between August and September last year and peaked in October. By November, posting activity had fallen 24% from the October peak. Anyone waiting until the holidays to apply for seasonal tax roles risks missing the prime recruiting window — and may already have missed it.

The timing constraint is real, but the underlying demand is not seasonal. A structural shortage of 340,000 professionals does not resolve between October and January.

How hard is the job market for young workers?

For people ages 16 to 24, the odds are steep. Only 53.8% of young people were employed in July, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the youth unemployment rate stood at 9.1% that month.

The college-to-work transition has also tightened. A survey by career services site Kickresume found that just 12% of recent graduates secured full-time jobs before graduation this year, compared with nearly 40% of earlier graduates — a drop of more than two-thirds. Automation compounds the problem. Goodwill CEO Steve Preston told Fortune last year that AI is reducing entry-level opportunities, the jobs where young workers traditionally gain experience.

Even a temporary position, then, offers a paycheck and experience in a market short on both.

How do you find these postings?

Seasonal openings rarely announce themselves. In 2025, fewer than 3% of seasonal job postings included "seasonal," "holiday," or "temporary" in the title, according to Monster. Searching for a specific role such as "tax associate" surfaces opportunities that a search for "holiday jobs" misses.

"A seasonal opening can be hiding among jobs that, by title alone, look like ordinary year-round positions," the report indicated. Monster also recommends widening the search across roles and industries.

The takeaway: the shortage is real and the pay is documented, but the October posting peak and the CPA entry cost mean the opportunity rewards early, deliberate action rather than a holiday-season impulse application.