Security-Cleared IT Pros Earn Top Dollar

If you're an IT professional with an active federal security clearance, your salary continues to trend above and beyond those of your non-cleared counterparts, according to the 2012 salary survey by ClearanceJobs.com.

The survey of more than 11,000 security-cleared professionals found that IT professionals with an active federal security clearance earned $97,335 on average in 2011, up 4 percent over the previous year. Pay for cleared IT professionals outpaced security-cleared professionals as a group, whose compensation rose just 2 percent in 2011 to an annual average of $90,865.

IT program managers were the highest paid security cleared professionals in the survey, earning an average of $121,496 in total compensation.

ClearanceJobs included base pay and additional forms of compensation such as overtime, danger pay, stock options and bonuses, in its calculation of total compensation.

But while salaries for security-cleared professionals are trending upward, anxiety about federal spending cuts also is increasing, the survey found. For example, 40 percent of security-cleared professionals noted concern about increased workloads caused by staff cuts, up from 28 percent in 2010. Survey respondents also noted fears of position elimination (38 percent), loss of contract funding (43 percent) and the relocation of positions (31 percent).

Despite those concerns, however, many top earners said they are still considering a job change within the next year, the survey found. Excluding cleared military personnel, 28 percent of top earners said they are likely to change jobs in the next year, compared to just 15 percent of respondents who were at least likely to switch and ranked in the bottom 20 percent of earners.