2025 Salary Survey: finance market trends

Say you work in finance and many will imagine a world of six-figure salaries, baffling spreadsheets, detached houses in the Home Counties and a statistically inexplicable number of people called Steve.

Working in charity finance however, is – baffling spreadsheets aside – a rather different story, but with their finger on the pulse and their ear to the ground at all times (we should really get them some chairs), our finance specialists are perfectly placed to bring you up to speed on the latest twists and turns.

Here’s what they had to say about remuneration and recruitment trends in the current market, in our 2025 Salary Survey.

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Finance roles have traditionally been among the better-paid charity jobs, carrying a premium in recognition of the extra study required for accounting qualifications.

However, employers seem increasingly reluctant to honour this, leading to a fairly flat year for those in charity finance, with only limited increases, largely at the senior end of the market. Nonetheless, economic uncertainty has certainly driven a boom in one thing: charities finding creative ways to meet their staffing needs without actually raising the budget.

One of these methods is a scattershot approach, posting the role at the desired rate through multiple agencies, job boards, social media, their own channels – extra admin be damned – and simply waiting it out until someone is desperate enough to accept it.

Until recently, this would have been a recipe for certain regret, but with more candidates in the market and many others at risk of joining them, there’s now more chance of an eventual result, even if it’s nobody’s ideal outcome.

Another tactic is to underplay the role’s importance, in a bid to justify a lesser salary.

We’re seeing an increasing number of roles advertised, for example, as a Finance Manager, which on closer inspection have all the responsibilities of a Head of Finance, just not the remuneration. It’s a little sneaky, and applicants would be well advised to read through job descriptions thoroughly rather than relying on the title - but faced with such existential financial challenges, it’s hard to begrudge charities trying to cut every possible corner to keep costs down.

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In a similar vein at more junior levels, we’re seeing more and more openings for Finance Officers who, rather than being supported by a Finance Assistant, are required to perform that role as well, making for some very long lists of responsibilities that candidates find wildly out of proportion to the salaries on offer.

There’s even some of that at the top too, in the shape of Finance Directors increasingly functioning as a secondary CEO but without, of course, the rewards.

It’s a sign of the extreme pressure on budgets that we’re even seeing candidates being offered less than their current position, hoping that the role will appeal for other reasons, but it’s vanishingly rare that those reasons are compelling enough for this tactic to bear fruit. Or indeed finance professionals, who are significantly better at the job.

Meanwhile, with more candidates competing for fewer vacancies than we’ve seen for several years, many organisations have made the application process more demanding, requiring things like presentations and assessments on top of the regular CV.

However, having landed good jobs with less effort in the past, applicants are increasingly unwilling to jump through additional hoops, so this can deter some of the very best candidates. Those with little choice will still apply, but those who can take their pick of employers will simply pick somewhere else.

Our advice? Maybe reconsider the assault course.

​For more on the market, or if you'd like our help with a recruitment issue in this field, please contact our finance specialists Simon Bascombe or Joshua Liveras who'll be happy to help.

Meanwhile you can find all the figures for all departments in the full 2025 Salary Survey here, or for any other queries, you can also contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300 or email info@harrishill.co.uk​

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