Market salary for CFO

February 05, 2023

by a searcher in Chicago, IL, USA

I'm wondering where I could find market data for CFO salaries based on the size of a company?

I have tried Google searches but the information widely differs. For example a company achieving 10m in EBITDA is said to pay a CFO between 200k - 500k plus bonuses. I'm wondering whether anyone could help out with a website that is accurate?

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Reply by a searcher
from Western University in Toronto, ON, Canada

Depends on the flavor CFO you're going for. If you're involved in a roll-up, you'll likely need a CFO with some acquisition chops (unless you intend to manage this entire piece yourself, or hire a Corp Dev team). If you're growing organically and are managing vanilla bank debt in an asset light business, you can likely hire for more of a "controller" flavored CFO. Stating the obvious, the former is going to be more expensive. Determining the roles and responsibilities is critical here because if you mis-match, you'll be rehiring in a year or so because they'll be unhappy in the role irrespective of compensation.

Reply by a searcher
from INSEAD in Toronto, ON, Canada

I have a slightly different take on this. If you plan to essentially grow the business organically with more value creation through sales and EBITDA margin expansion, CFO roles perhaps may not be very critical and you could do with someone less experienced and less energetic. However, if you are planning to grow through bolt on acquisitions and raise structured debt frequently - you should find a CFO who can help you deliver on this growth plan.

I suggest you make a list of JBTD - jobs to be done for the said role and then figure out the specific experience / skill set you would like your CFO to have.

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