Security-cleared employees clearing better salaries

If you work for a consulting firm or the defense industry, your IT staffers with security clearance can likely demand higher salaries. A new study from ClearanceJobs.com shows average salaries rose 6% over last year, to $72,803.

Pay was highest in the largest area for security-cleared employees, metropolitan Washington, D.C. Average pay rose 2% to $80,380. In particular, the Arlington neighborhood of Crystal City, Va., had a 19% gain in reported salaries, thanks to the area's close proximity to the Pentagon. Arlington County itself gained 10%. And Massachusetts’ influx of defense-related jobs boosted its pay for workers holding clearances by 9.7%.

Salaries for specific IT positions with security clearance include $116,935 for executive IT managers, compared to $86,179 without security clearance. Pay for IT manager/project manager breaks the six figure threshold at $100,089. IT systems engineers can command $93,202, network LAN/WAN designers $84,545, security network managers $83,309 and intrusion detection managers $83,158.

Overall, government contractors earn an average of 22% higher salaries than their government employee counterparts. And the female/male wage gap is not as prominent as all jobs, with women earning about 89 cents on the dollar to every dollar cleared men earn. By comparison, non-cleared women make 77 cents to every dollar non-cleared men earn.

“This is a job seeker’s market. With the quantity of qualified candidates in much shorter supply than the number of open jobs, wages for cleared candidates are expected to continue rising,” says Evan Lesser, director and founder of ClearanceJobs.com. Another factor hiking pay is the ongoing backlog of candidates awaiting clearance.