ERI_Logo 02122003  Assessor Series FAQ #25

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Frequently Asked Questions

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QUESTION:  Do any of the Assessors have a separate component for "security clearance" in the salary amounts?

 

ERI does not have a separate component for security clearance.  The salary amounts in the Assessors do reflect market pay practices for security clearances, as explained in number 1, 2, and 3 below.

 

However, it should be noted that salary surveys of job classifications tend not to separate job incumbents by type of security clearances.  As such, the salaries reported for the job in question might include those employees with varying levels of security clearances.

 

The lack of survey pay data segregated by security clearance is easily understood:

 

1.Security-cleared personnel are relatively common.  Military officers have security clearance, and many enlisted personnel have even higher clearances than high-ranking officers.  None are paid substantially different rates, when in uniform or after discharge.

 

2.Some jobs requiring security clearances are not surveyed, and pay is not based on competitive open market survey practices.  For example, one will likely not find any "secret agent" jobs in salary surveys.

 

3.Clearances tend to be entry requirements rather than add-on's that enhance a job value.  If you lack (or fail to win) the proper security clearance, you simply don't get the job or are shunted into a different, often less  sensitive, position.

 

The same applies to a doctor or attorney:  you can't hold the job without the proper official certification. Without the full license you are a medical student or intern M.D. rather than a fully-licensed doctor.  Without the LLB, you would be a paralegal, a law clerk or a legal assistant, although you might qualify as a non-practicing legal consultant even though denied access to the bar.

 

For more information about the question of paying a premium to workers with security clearances, please see a research paper published in the March 2010 Workspan magazine.

 

Please see the related Assessor Series FAQ #20.