Information security analyst is one of the fastest-growing jobs in America: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that employment in information security will grow 32% within the next eight years, with around 17,000 new roles opening up each year in the field.
Why so much demand? Well, with technology advancing at a rapid, almost-impossible-to-follow pace—and more of what we use and do day to day being conducted online or in the cloud—cybersecurity is becoming ever more crucial for organizations to invest in. Information security analysts, for their part, can guard data, build firewalls and encryption programs, and develop standards and processes around cyberattacks that help companies and consumers alike feel safe and secure.
How much do information security analysts make?
Information security analysts make on average $120,360 a year, or $57.87 per hour, in the United States, according to the latest wage data from the BLS. On job search platform Glassdoor, information security analysts are quoted at making around $111,100 in base salary and $30,254 annually in additional pay.
The states that pay the most for information security analysts, the BLS reports, are:
- Washington: $148,090 a year
- Iowa: $143,960 a year
- New York: $140,770 a year
- California: $140,730 a year
- New Hampshire: $139,050 a year
A steep salary in California and New York makes sense, as these states have the fourth and fifth highest costs of living respectively. Information security analysts can save big in Iowa, where the average salary is higher and cost of living is significantly lower compared to other states. Meanwhile, workers in this field based in Mississippi, Montana, Arkansas, and Vermont make the least—under $96,000 a year.
That said, your income as an information security analyst isn’t solely dependent on your location. Companies decide individual salaries using a number of factors, including level of experience, education, and outside influences such as a counteroffer or signing bonus. “Based on an offer that you get, you can negotiate,” adds Jody Thelander, a compensation executive and the founder of recruiting and research consultancy J.Thelander Consulting. Negotiating is especially important if your expertise or tenure surpasses the salary band, or the job offer is substantially lower than the going market rate as outlined below.
Cost of living
When evaluating whether a salary is adequate, always take into consideration the cost of living in your area—or how much you have to pay for necessities like food, transportation, or housing. For example, making six figures in New York City or the Bay Area of California won’t take you as far as it would in rural parts of those same states. Doing the math of how much you’ll bring in versus how much you spend month to month can give you some peace of mind—and ensure you’re really making enough to live comfortably.
Cost-of-living indexes are calculated against a base index of 100—in the case of each U.S. state, they’re compared to the cost of living in the entire country. For example, the cost-of-living index for Washington, where information security analysts make the highest salary, is 116, which signifies that the state of Washington has a cost of living that is 16% higher than the national average.
View this interactive chart on Fortune.com
Information security analyst salary by state
In the chart below, we’ve outlined the average annual salary for information security analysts in each U.S. state, according to the latest BLS wage data—last pulled in May 2023. We’ve also compiled each state’s 2023 cost-of-living index, as collected by The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER).
(Note that wage information for the state of Wyoming is unavailable on the BLS website—career website ZipRecruiter puts the salary for information security analysts in that state at $92,901 a year.)
The takeaway
If you’re looking to make a decent living as an information security analyst, your best bet is to work in—or for a company based in—the East or West Coast, where starting salaries are above $130,000 a year. In states where there are fewer tech hubs, such as Maine, Kentucky, and Oklahoma, you can still make anywhere from $96,000 to $100,000 a year in the role. The state with the lowest salary for information security analysts is Vermont, where the average annual income is around $90,000.
Thelander advises anyone looking to optimize their pay to research the landscape and understand where they fall into the market based on their background, skill set, and unique value proposition. High performers, she says, might attract the top end of a salary band, while some job seekers might be more comfortable in the middle of the range—if the tradeoff is a job with better work-life balance or other perks.
“You need to know, what is the speed limit?” she says, likening your search and negotiation tactic to being on the road. “And then you can decide, am I the Ferrari?”
