The CISSP has long been considered the gold standard of security certifications. In order to even qualify, you’re required to have a minimum of 5 years full time experience directly in the information security field, or 4 years experience and a college degree. According to (ISC)², as of October 2016, only 89,932 people hold CISSP certification worldwide. Earlier this month, the folks over at PayScale.com surveyed a group of 3,872 CISSPs finding their average yearly salary ranged from $54,820 to $152,311 depending on the participants location, years of experience and job title. 

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According to the study, the highest population of CISSPs are located in Washington DC, New York City and Atlanta Georgia. The city with the highest average salary was New York City, coming in at $119,840/yr.

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2018 CISSP Mean Salary By City

Washington, District of Columbia : $110,142.00

New York, New York : $119,840.00

Atlanta, Georgia : $96,372.00

Chicago, Illinois : $101,687.00

San Diego, California : $102,421.00

Dallas, Texas : $102,439.00

Boston, Massachusetts : $103,520.00

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It should come as no surprise that the more experience you have, the more money you will make. You can see the Median Salary for a CISSP based off years experience below:

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2018 CISSP Mean Salary by Years Experience

Less than 1 year : $51,244.00

1-4 years : $69,899.00

5-9 years : $87,005.00

10-19 years : $102,591.00

20+ years : $117,291.00

 

Finally, here’s a look at the job titles that have the highest median salary. You can see from the image below that Security Architects, Information Security Managers and Information Technology Directors earn the highest wages.

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2018 CISSP Mean Salary by Job Title

Information Security Analyst : $80,540.00

Information Security Manager : $105,152.00

Security Consultant : $93,529.00

Information Security Officer : $103,183.00

Information technology (IT) Director : $105,112.00

Security Architect, IT : $110,451.00

Security Engineer, Information Systems : $92,793.00

 

One particularly interesting finding of this study is that women who hold the CISSP cert earn significantly less than their male counterparts. The average salary for a female CISSP falls between $73,627 and $111,638, while the average male salary is between $78,788 and $119,184. 

The CISSP is a foundational certification for those seeking a higher level security profession as well as one of the most highly sought after certs in the IT industry.