CPA Salary in Georgia 2026,
$81,900 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Georgia figure is $81,900 a year, or $39.37 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 2.1% below the national median of $83,680. That covers all accountants and auditors, licensed or not. Licensed CPAs sit toward the $109,110 seventy-fifth percentile and the $145,960 ninetieth; the band starts at $51,830 for unlicensed staff accounting work.

No. SOC 13-2011 covers Accountants and Auditors as a whole — about 44,020 people in Georgia, of whom licensed CPAs are a minority. The $81,900 median therefore describes the broad occupation rather than the licensed profession. Because the CPA licence unlocks attest work and the senior public accounting and corporate roles that assume it, licensees are concentrated in the upper part of the band, and the $109,110 seventy-fifth percentile is a more useful reference for a CPA.

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell at $85,820, then Savannah $79,790, Warner Robins $78,560, Dalton $77,410 and Augusta-Richmond County $76,710. Atlanta's roughly six-thousand-dollar lead reflects the state's corporate headquarters concentration and the public accounting firm presence that serves it — technical accounting and internal audit demand that the other metros do not generate at the same scale.

Through the Georgia State Board of Accountancy, following the standard structure: qualifying education including accounting concentration coursework, passing the Uniform CPA Examination, and documented experience obtained under the supervision of a licensee. Continuing professional education is required to maintain the licence. What the licence then confers is a legal monopoly on attest work — audits, reviews and assurance engagements offered to the public — which is what makes it worth obtaining rather than merely useful.

The published band says yes. The distance from the $64,830 quarter-point where CPA candidates typically sit to the $109,110 seventy-fifth percentile and $145,960 ninetieth is largely the licensed tier, and the reason is legal rather than reputational: only CPAs may perform attest work, and only licensed firms may offer it. Nationally the profession faces a documented shortage of new licensees, which increases rather than reduces the licence's value. Georgia's flat tax also treats partnership profit at the same rate as salary, which simplifies the partner-track calculation.

Because it is a restriction on who may do certain work, not a signal of competence. Attest engagements — audits, reviews and other assurance work offered to the public — are reserved by law to CPAs, and only licensed firms may hold out as providing them. That creates a protected segment of the market with its own price, and it feeds through into corporate roles too: controllership, technical accounting and internal audit leadership positions routinely specify the licence because the work interacts with audited reporting. An unlicensed accountant can be excellent and still be excluded from that segment, which is why the band from $64,830 to $145,960 tracks licensure so closely.

It measures a much broader population than the page title implies — about 44,020 accountants and auditors of every kind, from transaction processing staff to audit partners. No individual sits at the median in a meaningful sense. The estimate also excludes partnership distributions, which is how public accounting firm partners are actually paid, so the $145,960 ninetieth percentile understates the top of the profession. And Atlanta dominates the state's professional accounting market to a degree the metro table only partly conveys.

The CPA licence first, and decisively, because it is a legal gate rather than a preference. Sector second: Atlanta's corporate headquarters and the public accounting firms serving them pay above general commercial accounting, which is the six-thousand-dollar Atlanta premium in the metro table and more besides. Technical specialisation third — audit, tax, and technical financial reporting are where the scarce skills are. And partnership or controllership fourth, which is what the $145,960 ninetieth percentile describes and which Georgia's flat tax treats no more harshly than salary.