What Accountants and Auditors earn in Clay County, FL
The median pay for Accountants and Auditors in Clay County, FL is $79,960 per year, which works out to $38.44 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area, the labor market that Clay County, FL belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $88,140, which is 10.2% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 6,890 people working in this occupation across the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Clay County, FL has roughly 227,584 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Accountants and Auditors in the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $51,800 a year ($24.90 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $130,620 or more ($62.80 an hour). That is a gap of $78,820 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $63,240 at the 25th percentile and $102,120 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.5 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Accountants and Auditors in Clay County, FL is $38.44. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $79,960, and the same salary is $6,663 a month before taxes or about $3,075 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $31.16 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Accountants and Auditors
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Accountants and Auditors this way: "Examine, analyze, and interpret accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others. Install or advise on systems of recording costs or other financial and budgetary data."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Prepare detailed reports on audit findings"; "Report to management about asset utilization and audit results, and recommend changes in operations and financial activities"; "Collect and analyze data to detect deficient controls, duplicated effort, extravagance, fraud, or non-compliance with laws, regulations, and management policies"; "Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions".
Job outlook for Accountants and Auditors
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 1,595,200 jobs in 2025 to 1,674,600 in 2035, a change of +5%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 115,300 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 7.2% of current employment each year. About 5.5% of the people in this occupation are self-employed, and wage figures cover wage and salary workers only.
Typical entry-level education: bachelor's degree. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $83,680 for this occupation; the Clay County, FL median of $79,960 is 4.4% below it.
How pay in Clay County, FL compares
Compared with the Florida average
Clay County, FL pays above the state benchmark. The Florida employment-weighted average for Accountants and Auditors is $78,981; the local median of $79,960 beats it by $979, or 1.2%. Within Florida, the highest median we track for this job is $80,920 in Miami-Dade County, FL.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Accountants and Auditors is $86,390 across the contiguous United States. At $79,960, Clay County, FL pays $6,430 less, which is 7.4% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Clay County, FL
Among the 511 occupations with published wages in Clay County, FL, Accountants and Auditors ranks number 117 by median pay, ahead of about 77% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Software Developers at $130,330 a year, which is $50,370 more than the median for Accountants and Auditors.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $79,960 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $15,157 a year, which leaves $64,803, or $5,400 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $19 goes to taxes and $81 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 19.0%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $64,210. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 22% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $9,040, an effective 11.3% of gross pay, well below the 22% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $4,958 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $1,159. FICA totals $6,117, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Florida
There is no state income tax on wages in Florida, which means Accountants and Auditors in Clay County, FL keep the full $64,803 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $3,998 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $333 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Clay County, FL
IRS Statistics of Income data for Clay County, FL show an average adjusted gross income of $78,974 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 11.2% across all filers. Filers in the $75,000 to under $100,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 8.1%, compared with the 11.3% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Clay County, FL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Clay County, FL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $64,803 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Clay County, FL is $1,421 a month, or $17,052 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,694 a month. For Accountants and Auditors, a one-bedroom absorbs 26.3% of take-home pay and 21.3% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 4.3% of gross pay for Accountants and Auditors in Clay County, FL. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Florida residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,494 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $1,005, for $2,498 in total. Gasoline in Florida averages $3.08 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,427.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $24,414 a year, 38% of take-home pay. That leaves $40,389 a year, or $3,366 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 50.5% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Clay County, FL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Clay County, FL: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Clay County, FL, set beside the Florida and national medians.
Property taxes in Clay County, FL
Homeowners in Clay County, FL pay a median of $2,241 a year in real estate taxes, 18% below the Florida median of $2,730 and 28% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $312,500, the median tax bill is 0.72% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Accountants and Auditors median of $79,960, a tax bill of that size would equal 2.8% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Clay County, FL
Renters in Clay County, FL pay a median gross rent of $1,551 a month in the Census survey, 7% below the Florida median of $1,669. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,421 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $312,500, 13% below the Florida median of $359,000. Median household income is $87,820, 18% above the Florida median of $74,568, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 19.4% of that income.
Commuting in Clay County, FL
Workers in Clay County, FL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 31.3 minutes each way, 12% above the Florida average of 28.0. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.2 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 15.9% of workers in Clay County, FL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Accountants and Auditors afford to live in Clay County, FL?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $79,960 that ceiling is $1,999 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,421 is $578 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $27.33 an hour; the median for Accountants and Auditors is $38.44, which is 41% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $31.16 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 10.5 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,694 a month means $847 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,888 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $47,277.
How fast you can save
At $3,366 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 3 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 6 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Accountants and Auditors pay in Clay County, FL
What is the hourly wage for Accountants and Auditors in Clay County, FL?
The median is $38.44 per hour, based on $79,960 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $24.90 at the 10th percentile to $62.80 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Accountants and Auditors in Clay County, FL?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $79,960 becomes $64,803 a year. That is $5,400 a month, $2,492 every two weeks or $1,246 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Accountants and Auditors in Clay County, FL?
Total taxes are $15,157 a year, an effective rate of 19.0%: $9,040 federal income tax, $6,117 FICA and no Florida income tax.
Is pay for Accountants and Auditors in Clay County, FL above the Florida average?
Yes. The local median of $79,960 is +1.2% versus the Florida average of $78,981, a difference of $979 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Accountants and Auditors salary in Clay County, FL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,421 a month against take-home pay of $5,400, which is 26.3% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,999 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Accountants and Auditors in Clay County, FL?
About $3,366 a month ($40,389 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $24,414 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Clay County, FL at the 30% guideline?
$27.33 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $17,052 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Accountants and Auditors is $38.44.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Florida rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.