Mar 18, 2010

Thomas Marcinko

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Do Employees with Security Clearances Earn More Money?

And if so, how much?  The answer is, it depends on your job and your location.  Brittany Ballenstedt of Nextgov reported that a survey conducted by ClearanceJobs.com showed that some cleared IT professionals can earn as much as 12% more than their non-cleared counterparts.  The largest salary premium associated with a clearance was for desktop support specialists who earned 12% more and IT managers who earned 10% more than similar employees that lacked clearances.  Other occupations saw much less of a salary bump such as business analysts and software engineers who earned on average 3% more than their not-cleared counterparts.

However, these are average figures.  The results vary quite a bit by location.  For instance, cleared IT professionals in Washington DC or San Diego CA earned at least 20% more in salary then their non-cleared counterparts.  Though, in such cities as New York and San Jose, there was no ascertainable difference in the salaries of cleared and non-cleared IT professionals.

When pricing a job that requires cleared personnel a contractor must take into account the job duties, the type of clearance, and the location of the work or run the risk of over or under pricing.