Accountant salary in Ithaca, NY

Pay in Ithaca against New York and the US

The middle half of accountants in Ithaca earns $72,720–$100,520. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $128,410, only 2.1 times the bottom tenth, against 2.6 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. The mean ($90,940) is 9% 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 $27,800 wide, against $55,060 across New York and $42,790 nationally: employers in Ithaca pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for an accountant here

Pay climbs faster above the median than below it here: the 75th percentile is $16,720 over the median, the 25th only $11,080 under it. An offer at the 75th percentile adds about $21,574 a year in employer cost. 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 25th percentile and the median in Ithaca, and the New York statewide median of $102,640 falls between the 75th and 90th percentiles.

What a hire really costs in Ithaca

At the $83,800 median, a local hire costs about $108,129 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $24,329 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 Ithaca

Of the 14 roles we track in Ithaca, this one ranks #2 by median pay, after project coordinators ($96,870); marketing specialists come next at $78,810.

Measured against the US median, accountants rank #7 of the 14 roles we track in Ithaca (+0.1%), between administrative assistants (+0.9%) and marketing specialists (+0.1%). The typical role here is at +0.1%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Accountants hold 7.5% of the jobs in these 14 roles in Ithaca, 10.7% across New York and 9.9% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in New York

Across the 16 areas of New York with data for this job, the median runs from $76,510 in the Capital/Northern New York nonmetro area to $105,650 in New York-Newark, a gap of $29,140 a year. Of the 13 areas in New York with more accountants than Ithaca, 10 pay less, the largest of them Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY ($82,120), Rochester, NY ($80,890) and Syracuse, NY ($82,230).

Ithaca against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Ithaca is #423 of 521 US areas for this job. The market is small, but its pay is in the top quarter of US areas. Outside New York, Salinas and Casper pay just above Ithaca and Manchester-Nashua and Stockton-Lodi just below. All four are within $230 a year of the median in Ithaca. Of the three markets with about as many accountants, none pays as much.

Questions

Sources

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