CompTIA Security+ Salary Guide 2026: What You'll Actually Earn

The average entry-level salary for a CompTIA Security+ holder in the United States is $71,689 a year as of mid-2026, with most offers landing between $50,500 and $89,000 ^[1]. That single number hides a lot — your role, region, clearance, and experience move it by tens of thousands in either direction. Here is the honest 2026 breakdown: what each job actually pays, what to expect with zero experience, and whether the $439 exam fee pays for itself (spoiler: usually within the first month of a new role). Pay also swings by metro — see CompTIA salaries by US region and city.

What Security+ Holders Earn in 2026

Salary aggregators disagree on precise averages, so we use each source for what it measures best. ZipRecruiter tracks live entry-level postings; PayScale tracks self-reported base pay; Glassdoor leans toward total compensation at bigger employers.

Read the ceiling number correctly: $139,766 is what the field averages across all experience levels, not what a fresh Security+ gets you. It tells you where the career goes, not where it starts.

Security+ Salary by Role

The certification is the door key — the role behind the door sets the pay. These are the common jobs Security+ holders land, with 2026 national figures:

Government and defense-contractor work is its own lane: Security+ satisfies IAT Level II under DoD 8570/8140, where mid-level positions run $70,000–$110,000 and an active clearance adds a $5,000–$25,000 premium on top.

Entry-Level Reality: Your First Offer

Expect your first offer in the $50,500–$72,000 band, not at the headline average. Three factors decide where you land inside it:

• Prior IT experience: Help desk or sysadmin years move you toward the top of the band. Security+ reframes experience you already have.
• Region and remote policy: Metro security markets (DC, Northern Virginia, Bay Area) pay 20–40% over national medians; fully-remote roles usually price between your market and theirs.
• The raise effect: IT professionals report $5,000–$15,000 raises after adding Security+, and 10–20% jumps when moving from general IT into a security title ^[4].

Security+ Salary by Experience Level

The same certification prices very differently at year one and year five. Read the middle column as the number to anchor a negotiation on, and the source column as how much to trust it:

The jump that matters most is the first one: moving from a general IT title into a security title typically brings a 10–20% raise on its own ^[4], and Security+ is usually the credential that unlocks that move.

Security+ Salary by Region and Remote

National averages hide a wide regional spread. Across the ZipRecruiter and PayScale metro listings behind the figures above ^[1][2], the pattern is consistent:

• Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia: the deepest Security+ market in the country because of DoD 8140 hiring; expect 20–35% over the national median, more with a clearance.
• San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York: 30–50% over national, offset by cost of living; fewer roles gate on Security+ specifically.
• Texas, Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia: near the national median with growing SOC and MSSP hiring — often the best pay-to-cost ratio.
• Remote roles: usually priced between the national median and the employer’s home market. Fully remote entry-level SOC seats run $55,000–$72,000; see the remote cybersecurity jobs guide for the roles that hire beginners.

For city-level figures, browse CompTIA salaries by US region and city.

The Security Clearance Premium

Security+ satisfies IAT Level II under DoD 8570/8140, which is why it shows up in so many defense-contractor postings. Those seats pay $70,000–$110,000 at mid-level, and an active Secret or Top Secret clearance adds roughly $5,000–$25,000 on top — not because the work is harder, but because the pool of people who are both certified and cleared is small. If you already hold a clearance from military service, Security+ is the cheapest raise available to you; if you do not, a contractor willing to sponsor one is worth taking a slightly lower first offer for.

Jobs With Security+ and No Experience

Zero professional experience does not mean zero offers — it means targeting the roles that hire on certification plus aptitude:

• SOC Analyst Tier 1 (~$50–65K): The highest-volume entry role. Employers staff 24/7 monitoring seats and train juniors on the job.
• IT Support with security duties (~$45–60K): Help desk roles that own patching, access reviews, and phishing triage — a 12–18 month springboard into a security title.
• Junior GRC Analyst (~$55–75K): Compliance-side work (audits, evidence collection) where writing skills matter as much as tooling.
• Government contractor seats (IAT Level II): DoD contracts must staff certified people, which makes Security+ itself the gate — a genuine no-experience path if you can clear a background check.

For the full role-by-role hiring picture — including which of these hire remote — see our remote cybersecurity jobs with no experience guide. And before any interview, drill a free Security+ practice test — walking through why wrong answers are wrong is exactly what screening interviews probe.

How to Push the Number Up

• Stack the next cert deliberately: CySA+ is the natural analyst-track follow-up and re-prices you toward the $85K–$110K band. See the certification path order guide for sequencing.
• Chase the clearance, not just the cert: A Secret or TS clearance adds $5K–$25K and shrinks your competition dramatically.
• Interview with score evidence: "Scoring 85%+ across all five SY0-701 domains" is a concrete, verifiable line — pair it with the 750/900 passing-score system so you can speak to it fluently.
• Do the ROI math once: whether Security+ is worth it at all is covered in our full worth-it analysis — for most people a $439 exam returning a $5K–$15K raise is not a close call.

References

1. ZipRecruiter. "CompTIA Security+ Entry Level Salary." ziprecruiter.com. National average and percentile bands, as of June 30, 2026.
2. PayScale. "Salary for Certification: CompTIA Security+" and "Security Analyst Salary." payscale.com. Self-reported base compensation, 2026.
3. Programs.com. "Average Cybersecurity Salary in 2026." programs.com. Field-wide average across all experience levels.
4. StationX. "CompTIA Security+ Salary (2026)." stationx.net. Post-certification raise and transition-increase survey data.

Figures are US national medians/averages as of mid-2026 and vary by market; treat every range here as a negotiation floor-finder, not a promise.