COMP NEWS – A new salary survey highlights how base salary, variable bonus pay,  and long-term incentives have grown for Chief Security Officers.

As security hiring trends evolve, it can be difficult to ascertain the average salary of a chief security officer, even when these metrics are helpful tools for increasing employee retention and job satisfaction.

The Foushée Group, a leading compensation research company has produced the Security & Compliance Compensation Survey annually for the last 22 years. The survey is designed to provide accurate and timely compensation information on 78 security and compliance positions to companies whom seek to market price their positions to the national market.

The survey input is not based on self-reporting, rather the survey questionnaire is sent to human resources (HR) professionals who review the provided job descriptions and match their jobs to the survey position descriptions. All data reported is aligned with the Department of Justice safe harbor guidelines for reporting compensation information. No individual company data is identifiable; the data is reported in weighted averages, median, percentile distributions and other pertinent data. Participating companies range in revenue size from under 500 million to more than 250 billion.

Compensation Surveys are a snapshot in time, reflecting the data at the effective date of the information. For the 2023 survey, it’s important to keep in mind that the Foushée Group requested data be returned to them at the end of January 2023, with an effective date of January 1, 2023.

While base salary only slightly increased, variable bonus pay and long-term incentives increased more.

When comparing reported data from the 2018 survey to the 2023 survey, the Chief Security Officer (CSO) position’s base pay weighted average in the aggregate increased by 1.3% over the reporting period to $345,266 annually. Base salary plus bonus increased by 5.3% to $471,638 annually. Bonuses are pay at risk and tend to vary based on company goals, profitability and employee performance and recognize company and employee performance for the past year or 2022. Most CSO positions are eligible for a long-term incentive (LTI), usually paid in company stock over a set number of years — typically a rolling plan of three to five years. The LTI annual target increased significantly by 36% over the reporting period to $204,897 annually. In this comparison, companies have awarded a moderate base pay increase for the CSO and significantly increased pay at risk including LTI, focusing the executive on long-term company goals with the possibility of a significantly greater upside in LTI compensation spread over the number of years in the plan.

To read the survey on Chief Security Officer compensation, click here.

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