Today the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP)released the results of its annual salary survey.The headline news is that finance managers and staff are receivinglarger raises today than at any time since the financialcrisis.

More than 3,300 finance professionals provided information ontheir base salaries as of January 1, 2014, as well as their totalcompensation (base salary plus any bonuses) during calendar year2013. Respondents represent every region of the United States andcompanies of all sizes. Exactly half come from organizations withover $1 billion in annual revenue, while 22 percent come fromcompanies with under $100 million in annual revenue.

Among all these respondents, the average raise in base salaryfrom January 1, 2013, to January 1, 2014, was 3.8 percent. This isup from 3.4 percent the previous year, and it's considerably higherthan at any other time since the crisis. For the first time inseveral years, finance staff saw a larger increase (4.1 percent)than did finance managers (4.0 percent) or finance executives (3.5percent). Executives were the only group to see a lower averagesalary increase last year than they received the year before (seeFigure 1, below). Among the 20 different job titles tracked in thesurvey, the two that saw the highest raises were financialreporting specialists (5 percent, on average) and financialanalysts (4.8 percent).

Salaries vary fairly predictably by region, with financeprofessionals in the Northeast making around 10 percent more thanthose in the Midwest, although the difference varies by job title.For example, when treasurers' average salary is broken down bygeographic region, the figure ranges from $207,362 in the Northeastto $195,331 in the West; $187,503 in the South; and $185,307 in theMidwest. Assistant treasurers make an average of $155,685 in theNortheast but only $136,512 in the Midwest, with salaries in theWest ($140,256) and South ($138,725) falling in between.

The survey reveals that company size has an even biggerimpact on a finance pro's base salary than does geographic region.Across all job titles, the average salary in the survey's largestcompanies is $126,886, while it's only $88,909 in the smallestcompanies. (See Figure 2, below.)

In addition to earning higher raises, 71 percent of surveyrespondents also received bonuses in 2013. At the executive level,the average bonus equated to 34 percent of the respondent's basesalary. Managers received bonuses equivalent to 17 percent of theirbase salary, and finance staff received bonuses equal to 10percent, on average, of their base salary.

Among the companies that gave bonuses to members of theirfinance team, 94 percent awarded cash bonuses and 33 percentawarded stock options. In nearly two-thirds (62 percent) oforganizations awarding bonuses, operating income or EBITDA targetswere a key consideration in evaluating performance and calculatingbonus size. Around half of companies based bonuses on completion ofspecific projects (51 percent) or on achievement of profit-relatedtargets (48 percent).

The AFP survey also asked about vacation time, and it found thatrespondents get around three weeks off in their first year. First,they receive an average of 9 paid holidays. On top of these days,those who have separate tallies for vacation and sick leave receivean average of 11 days of paid vacation and 8 days of sick leave.Respondents for whom sick and vacation time are combined receive anaverage of 15 days of paid time off, in addition to companyholidays. Half of organizations require employees to wait fiveyears before they receive another week's worth of paid vacation—and12 percent of companies require them to wait even longer. But 16percent of companies provide another 5 vacation days after one totwo years, and another 16 provide it after three to four years.