Interesting Article - Pay Rises for Security-Cleared U.S. Workers

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Pay Rises for Security-Cleared U.S. Workers
By antonie boessenkool
Published: 23 Feb 2010 09:39

Despite layoffs and cutbacks in the U.S. defense workforce and economy in general last year, 58 percent of workers with security clearances saw compensation increases, according to an annual survey by ClearanceJobs.com, a jobs database for professionals with security clearances. Of those who saw an increase in compensation last year, 19 percent attributed that increase to switching jobs. Those two factors show that "it's still a job-seekers market for security-cleared defense professionals," said Evan Lesser, director and founder of ClearanceJobs.com.


ClearanceJobs.com surveyed about 3,600 workers with security clearances between October 2009 and January 2010 about their earnings, job satisfaction and job status. This is the sixth annual survey.

The average compensation for security-cleared professionals in 2009 was $92,368, according to the survey. That includes salary, bonuses, overtime and "danger pay."

In 2008, ClearanceJobs.com found security-cleared workers had an average salary of $73,961, but unlike the 2009 figure, that doesn't include bonuses, overtime or other compensation.

"We're not too terribly surprised that almost 20 percent said they were able to change jobs and get a salary increase. It's a very tight labor market. It's a very, very low number of candidates, and usually more jobs than candidates to fill them. And the fact that it still takes a fair amount of time on average to obtain a final security clearance for an individual that does not have one," Lesser said. "So the people that have existing clearance are still able to command these higher salaries.

But despite the salary increases in the last year, job satisfaction slid from previous surveys. For 2009, 62 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with their jobs, down from 70 percent in the previous year's survey.

The cause for the drop in job satisfaction is difficult to determine, however, Lesser said.

"Whenever we see a drop in job satisfaction, it's usually due to people doing more work than they did before," but with a majority of security-cleared workers reporting salary increases, "it's hard to pinpoint why (the drop in job satisfaction) might be the case," Lesser said.

Other findings from the survey include:

■ Workers with clearances issued by intelligence agencies like the CIA, FBI or NSA had average compensation at $112,894. DoD-cleared workers had average compensation of $84,211.

■ Those working with intelligence agencies had the highest levels of job satisfaction at 69 percent. Homeland Security Department and those working for government contractors had the lowest level of job satisfaction at 46 percent.

■ Security-cleared professionals working in Afghanistan had average compensation of $159,558. Those working in Iraq had average compensation of $155,544.

■ Overall, the split between security-cleared government contractors and government employees shows contractors earned more, on average. Contractors had average compensation of $98,088 while government employees with clearances had an average compensation of $85,129.