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The differences between auditors and lead auditors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a lead auditor has an average salary of $85,352, which is higher than the $54,853 average annual salary of an auditor.
The top three skills for an auditor include audit reports, customer service and financial statements. The most important skills for a lead auditor are ISO, medicare, and management system.
| Auditor | Lead Auditor | |
| Yearly salary | $54,853 | $85,352 |
| Hourly rate | $26.37 | $41.03 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 20,325 | 20,504 |
| Job satisfaction | 3 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 55% | Bachelor's Degree, 58% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
An auditor is responsible for reviewing financial statements and making sure that the reports align with the accounting principles and legislative standards. Some of the important duties of an auditor are verifying the company's account statements, ensuring that the business is free from fraud and other unusual activities, providing recommendations to boost operations' performance, and creating financial reports for the board. An auditor should have excellent analytical and decision-making skills to spot inaccuracies of financial statements and resolve financial issues immediately.
Lead auditors are professionals who are responsible for providing leadership and coordinating work schedules to a team of audit experts within an organization. These lead auditors are required to prepare audit plans and conduct team meetings before conducting internal or external audits at the end of the quarter or year. They must conduct audits to provide reviews to the management about the effectiveness of the overall quality system. Lead auditors must also develop action plans to improve the financial reporting systems of the organization.
Auditors and lead auditors have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Auditor | Lead Auditor | |
| Average salary | $54,853 | $85,352 |
| Salary range | Between $35,000 And $84,000 | Between $62,000 And $115,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | New York |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Professional |
There are a few differences between an auditor and a lead auditor in terms of educational background:
| Auditor | Lead Auditor | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 55% | Bachelor's Degree, 58% |
| Most common major | Accounting | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between auditors' and lead auditors' demographics:
| Auditor | Lead Auditor | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 44.9% Female, 55.1% | Male, 57.9% Female, 42.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.1% Asian, 12.1% White, 63.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 8.7% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.0% Asian, 12.2% White, 63.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |