Accountant salary in Columbia, SC

Pay in Columbia against South Carolina and the US

The middle half of accountants in Columbia earns $58,320–$84,300. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $109,040, only 2.2 times the bottom tenth, against 2.6 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. The mean ($76,220) is 10% over the median, so a group of high earners pulls the average up; price a typical hire from the median. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $25,980 wide, against $36,980 across South Carolina and $42,790 nationally: employers in Columbia pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for an accountant here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $15,090 a year in pay and about $19,471 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $10,890 in pay. These percentiles describe what people in the job earn locally, not experience levels, so place your offer by the tasks and seniority you need.

For scale, the US median of $83,680 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in Columbia, and the South Carolina statewide median of $76,560 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Columbia

At the $69,210 median, a local hire costs about $89,303 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $20,093 here. Recruiting, equipment and office space come on top. Benefit levels vary by employer, so treat this as an estimate.

We place executive assistants, customer support and e-commerce staff today; for accountants we answer within one business day whether we can help. Enter the monthly pay you have in mind to compare it with a local hire. The fee field shows our standard fee³; Deel's contractor plan is the default payroll tool⁴.

Other roles in Columbia

Of the 17 roles we track in Columbia, this one ranks #2 by median pay, after project coordinators ($85,260); marketing specialists come next at $68,600.

Measured against the US median, accountants rank #15 of the 17 roles we track in Columbia (-17.3%), between project coordinators (-16.7%) and executive assistants (-26.6%). The typical role here is at -10.5%, so, measured against the US, accountants cost less in Columbia than the area's general pay level would suggest. Accountants hold 6.8% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Columbia, 6.1% across South Carolina and 9.1% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in South Carolina

Across the 11 areas of South Carolina with data for this job, the median runs from $68,070 in the Southern South Carolina nonmetro area to $79,350 in Charleston-North Charleston, a gap of $11,280 a year. No other area in South Carolina has as many accountants, and 1 of the other 10 pays less.

Columbia against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Columbia is #63 of 521 US areas for this job. It is one of the larger markets for this job, yet its pay sits in the bottom quarter of US areas. Outside South Carolina, Texarkana and Champaign-Urbana pay just above Columbia and Enid and Grand Island just below. All four are within $1,120 a year of the median in Columbia. Of the three markets with about as many accountants, all three pay more.

Questions

Sources

How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Last updated 2026-11-12.