re: CPA's Exiting Public Accounting

30%401k match. Say what?

I think what you are referring to is rolling hours.

Same thing at my current firm. Old firm had straight PTO (about 18 days) and a performance bonus up to 6% of salary. Not a bad system.

You better be one grateful SOB! You got it good. Congrats!

Back in my day, staff and seniors were paid overtime for every billable hour in excess of 8 per day. And if you had over 10 billable hours you got a per diem meal allowance as well. Needless to say, during busy season you would hit that 10 billable hours every day, including weekends if you wanted. I was working, and living, in San Francisco so I used public transportation to get to the office, but public transportation going home wasn't always an option. It was understood that we could charge cab fare to the clients we worked on during days when taking a cab home late at night was necessary. Enterprising staff would pool together 4 people, one of whom would drive and park at a nearby parking lot. That person would drive home 3 others who would charge for cab fare that they would split with the driver.

So when exactly did being a CPA in public practice move to being borderline slavery (kidding) but really? I'm assuming the hours have gotten longer because the code has gotten more complex which in turn increased risk which increased partner compensation?

Things have only gotten better for staff as time has gone by. Compensation has increased to where it is competitive with industry. Underpaying with the goal of making the big bucks as a partner doesn't work anymore. Compensation for overtime has become more structured, and the options available to staff for how they receive compensation for overtime are greater.

I honestly believe now is the best time to be entering public accounting from the perspective of staff compensation and working conditions. The career possibilities are quite different than when I entered over 25 years ago. Up or out is no longer the rule. Accounting firms will compensate managers adequately so that they will stay forever and be productive. In the past the pay for managers was not competitive with industry so managers would leave as soon as they learned becoming a partner was not in their future.

Are y'all talking about smaller firms? Most B4 gives you zilch for working an 80h week instead of a 40h week.

That is not exactly true - it depends on the situation at the client/home office etc. Just got out of a busy season and honestly I can't say I'd trade the experience for an industry job. In a few years I'm sure I'll be getting out but the amount of things you touch in public accounting is unreal. The amount of learning you do at big public firm on a big client is unbelievable.

Our firm offers 80 hours vacation + 40 hours sick time annually. Vacation rolls over but sick time does not. We allow every hour worked over 40 to accrue and these "comp" hours are treated just like vacation (roll over included). We require a 55 hour minimum through 4/15. We have a second busy season for our 6/30 year-end clients (non profits) which requires 55 hour work weeks for approximately 8 weeks. Other than that, we allow everyone to work 25-30 hours a week the rest of the year (hours vary depending on where we stand on our prep work for the next busy season). Most of our new hires don't seem to mind the busy seasons since they get to back off and have a lot of free time during the spring and fall (football is king in our office).