How Much Do U.S. Cyber Professionals Make?

nOne of the first questions one might ask when choosing a career is, “Does itnpay well?” When it comes to cybersecurity, the answer is “Yes!” with annaverage reported salary of $147,138 in the U.S. Not only isncybersecurity a challenging career with a mission that benefits us all, butnit is also financially lucrative for many in this high-demand field.n

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nOur annual workforce study received more responses than ever before, closento 15,000 participants. About a third of these respondents came from thenU.S., giving us a robust participant pool from which to confidently shareninsights around U.S. salaries. For this article, we focus on cybersecuritynsalaries in the U.S. only, where we asked participants to share their basenannual salary before taxes. All currency is expressed as U.S. Dollars.n

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nDigging Deeper: Salaries by Seniorityn

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nNot surprisingly, salaries vary across experience and job levels, with ansteady progression from entry- and junior-level roles to C-Suite andnexecutives. We also see significant disparity between genders, underliningnthe continued existence of the gender pay gap in cybersecurity:n

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• n Entry- and junior-level respondents report an average annual salary ofn $86Kn
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• n Nonmanagerial, mid-advanced staff earn an average annual salary of $137Kn
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• n Managers earn an average of $149Kn
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• n Directors and middle managers earn an average of $175Kn
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• n C-suite and executive management earn an average of $215Kn
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nThe U.S. salary rates at each of the seniority levels are highlynencouraging, especially when compared to the median U.S. wage of $59,428,naccording to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.n

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nExploring Salaries by Gendern

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nHowever, there is a significant disparity when we break up those levels ofnseniority by gender:n

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• n Women nonmanagerial, mid-advanced staff earn $131K, which is 5% lessn than what men earn ($138K)n
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• n Women managers earn $138K, 9% less than what men in the same roles earnn ($150K)n
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• n Women at the director and middle-manager level eliminate the gap withn $177K annual salaries compared to men making 175K (1% more)n
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• n Women in the C-suite and executive level earn an average salary ofn $220K, which is 4% more than the average salary for men in the samen rolesn
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nCybersecurity Salaries by Race and Ethnicityn

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nWe also explored pay disparities by ethnicity for those working in thencybersecurity profession.n

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nMost of our U.S. respondents (80%) are White. We also hadnrespondents who identify as Black or African American (8%),nnHispanic or Latinxnn(7%), East Asian or Southeast Asian (7%), South Asiann(4%), and American Indian or Alaska Native (2%).n

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• n Cybersecurity professionals of South Asian descent earn then most in our study at $155K, followed by ethnicn n East and Southeast Asiansn n at $151Kn
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• n Whites earn $148Kn
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• n American Indians and Alaska Natives earn $147Kn
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• n Hispanics/Latinx and Blacks/African Americans earn then lowest salaries at $136K and $132K, respectively.n
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nCybersecurity Pay Disparity by Race/Ethnicity and Gendern

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nWhite men had the highest annual salaries at $149K, while Nonwhite women hadnthe lowest, at $136K, or 90% of what the White men earn.n

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nConclusionn

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nPeople working in the cybersecurity profession earn strong salaries in thenU.S. regardless of their job level, gender or ethnicity. While pay disparitynremains a challenge for the field, cybersecurity seems to have more paynparity than the broader U.S. labor market. While salary has historically notnbeen a top motivator for people to pursue a cybersecurity career, ournresearch suggests that organizations that focus on addressing payndisparities have more engaged cybersecurity teams and are more effective atnminimizing the impact of workforce gaps.n

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nCheck out these helpful resourcesn

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nResearchnn2023 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Studynn

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nResearch Womennand People of Color Detail Experiences Working in Cybersecurity

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