Still Not Enough? How Pay and Firm Culture Affect Students’ Pursuit of Public Accounting Jobs and Accountants’ Commitment to the Public Accounting Profession

Fewer students pursuing public accounting careers threatens the profession’s sustainability. Despite recent pay increases and attempts to reframe public accounting work as desirable, employee shortages persist. We employ two studies examining how students’ and current professionals’ perceptions of distributive justice, organizational support, and work-life balance in public accounting influence accounting students’ job pursuit intentions (Study 1) and accounting professionals’ commitment to public accounting (Study 2), thus addressing both attraction and retention pipeline issues. Study 1 utilizes a 2 (pay: average or above average) × 2 (work-life balance: poor or good) experiment, whereas Study 2 surveys public accounting employees. Moderated serial mediation findings show the relation between pay and job pursuit intentions (Study 1) and commitment (Study 2) is mediated by perceptions of distributive justice and organizational support. Finally, student perceptions of distributive justice and organizational support are significantly more important factors when work-life balance in public accounting firms is poor. Data Availability: The data for this study are available upon request. JEL Classifications: M40; M41.