Is there any role in accounting that's only working 40 hours a week without taking any pay cut? I've been in public accounting for 9+ years and am on reduced schedule after becoming a mom for almost 2 years. It's not working out, and is only getting worse. I've heard even in industry, with this kind of level of experience, I should not expect to only work 40 hours a week and get competitive market pay. Is this true? If there are any, I'd love to learn more about it. See more in comments

Breaking news: the pay is competitive because the jobs require sacrifice outside of a guaranteed 40 hours a week

Try technical accounting? Pay is decent and its mostly long term projects (like memos). In my tech acc industry roles i had extra time on my hands and worked from home, typically less than 40h. Boss was happy as long as i was getting my tasks done, and i was ahead of schedule.

I went to nonprofit company with only 3% higher but the hours are amazing. No more work after 5, no weekend. I can get the work done within 2 hours and am pretty much free for the rest of the day.

I currently work in Accounting, and only during month end closing (one week a month) am I working more than 40 hours. That being said, I am one of 2 people that work more than 40 hours that week based on workloads, and we are actively working on correcting that. I think it might be a matter of what type of accounting you are looking at doing.... I'm in corporate accounting. I've only ever worked in corporate accounting so I am not sure if this is really a big factor, or if I have just been fortunate enough to work for companies that believe in work/life balance, but looking at other comments.... Might be worth looking at. My employer also gives new hires 3 weeks PTO, 2 weeks sick and 1 week of floating holidays, plus the normal holidays off.... But we are hybrid and do have to go into the office, and our year end is on New Year's.... So it can be a trade off at times if you have a full remote environment. I also work on an area where if you look at Robert Half's salary reporting, the area typically is under national average by 10%, but my employer pays the national average or higher depending on experience and role. So, don't get discouraged! It is possible.... Just may need to consider all avenues of accounting.

I need to increase my pay to normal pay but don't want to work over 40 hours a week. Is this impossible?

Mainly because I want to spend more time with my kid. I know busy season is busy season but I feel like I'm glued to my desk all day long, day and night, because all those tight deadlines, which get moved up earlier and earlier each year because clients asked and my boss kept committing to it. I think I just can't handle those anymore.

It's definitely possible to get a 40 hr week job, but may be less competitive. I work in industry and while there are times I work over 40 hours, there are plenty of time that I only do 40. Becoming a parent has taught me how to be more efficient with my work time so I can keep the hours down.

You can find a job that is 40 hours but: it may be very boring, it may be exciting and require one off weekends or late hours due to business activities, and if you are in tax this does not exist when we have fixed filing dates and if you are a company that has quarterly financials also not likely.

Mom of 2 here. I work in the industry. There’s plenty of interesting/ challenging work outside of PA that will compensate you competitively and won’t requite continuous 40+ hrs a week. Look at F500 companies: plenty of positions for internal audit, accounting, and tax, all want your PA experience. The only sacrifice I can think of is the QE closes. I pull 2-3 12 hour days 4 times a year, However, I do know the schedule a year in advance and plan accordingly. Even with the most eventful QE closes, my hours don’t come close to PA’s crunch.