What are national security professionals getting paid?

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A number of security professionals work in the national security field, aiming to secure the United States and its interests both in-country and abroad.

From contractors to special agents, security leaders hold roles in various sectors. According to the 2022 Security Clearance Compensation Report from ClearanceJobs, security professionals in certain sectors earn higher wages than others. The report identified the top earning job categories within national security:

Information Technology (IT) — Software ($129,756 average annual salary)
Engineering — Systems ($129,351)
Management ($123,773)
IT — Data Science ($119,759)
Business — Sales ($119,221)

The top salaries are in IT and business environments, according to the report. Security management also ranked within the top five job categories for earnings. The lowest average national security earners by sector are business support staff, who make an average annual salary of $74,383.

The report ranked the 50 states and Washington, D.C., by their average national security salaries. Respondents in Massachusetts were the highest earners on average, reporting an annual salary of $113,197. The lowest ranked state was Kentucky, with average annual national security earnings of $80,882.

In addition, employees of federal agencies reported different average salaries. The report ranked agencies and departments based on their employees’ average annual earnings:

Central Intelligence Agency ($134,013)
National Security Agency ($114,123)
Department of Energy ($107,328)
Department of Homeland Security ($104,560)
Department of State ($104,394)
Department of Justice ($103,775)
Department of Defense ($101,138)

For more security salary data, download the report.

Madeline Lauver is the Editor in Chief of Security magazine. Lauver joined Security in 2021 as its Assistant Editor, and she covers news affecting enterprise security leaders, including physical security, cybersecurity, leadership and management, risk and resilience and more. Within her role at Security, Lauver focuses on news articles, web exclusives, features and several departments for Security’s monthly digital edition, as well as managing social media and multimedia content. Lauver graduated in 2019 with a B.A. in English, German and Media Studies from Kalamazoo College.

In today's rapidly evolving security landscape, organizations face an ever-growing array of disruptive events, security threats and risks. Traditional reactive approaches to security intelligence often leave businesses vulnerable and ill-prepared to anticipate and mitigate emerging threats that could impact the safety of their people, facilities or operations.

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