cyber security salary calculator
Explore salary trends for beginner cyber security professionals based on location
Why use the salary calculator?
Smarter career planning
These insights help you pick the best industries and places for highest paying entry-level cyber security roles.
Regional clarity
Compensation varies by location, state, and position. See trends to find where entry-level cyber security professionals earn the most.
Confidence in each step
When you know the market rate for starter cyber security roles, you get better during interviews, negotiations, and long-term career choices.
How to use the salary explorer?
1Set your filters – choose the location and the title that you want.
2View salary data – explore entry-level cyber security pay averages, medians, and ranges.
3Compare & plan – see how annual cyber security salaries change across cities and experience.
Verified salary benchmarks
Entry-level clarity
Trends over time
Salary comparisons
Dedicated salary views for cyber security jobs that require no experience, including NYC, CA, TX, FL, Seattle, Chicago.
Know what to ask for cyber security roles
See how the average salary for cybersecurity changes as careers progress.
What will you see?
Salary by city
Salary by position
Salary ranges
Career growth paths
Ready to level up your skills? Book a free career consultation and start your learning journey!
FAQ
Is cyber security a remote job?
Yes, as long as hackers and crime exist, there will be a need for cyber security professionals (and handsome average cyber security salaries). Cloud migration, zero-trust initiatives, compliance requirements, and the growing threats require constant new entry-level professionals. Areas with a high concentration of tech jobs and regulated industries usually hire the most.
Is cyber security still in demand?
This is one of the most common questions because burnout and depression share overlapping symptoms like fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and loss of interest in activities. The critical difference lies in scope and context. Burnout is situation-specific, almost always work-related or tied to a specific role (like student burnout or caregiver burnout), and symptoms primarily manifest in relation to that context. Depression, by contrast, affects all areas of your life regardless of circumstances.
A person with job burnout might still enjoy hobbies, family time, or vacations, while someone with clinical depression struggles to find pleasure in anything. Burnout symptoms also tend to improve with environmental changes—switching roles, setting boundaries, or taking extended time off from the triggering situation. Depression persists even when circumstances improve and typically requires professional mental health treatment. That said, untreated burnout can lead to depression, which is why early intervention with tools like this burnout self assessment matters. If you're experiencing symptoms that affect your entire life and persist regardless of work situation, please consult a mental health professional.
A person with job burnout might still enjoy hobbies, family time, or vacations, while someone with clinical depression struggles to find pleasure in anything. Burnout symptoms also tend to improve with environmental changes—switching roles, setting boundaries, or taking extended time off from the triggering situation. Depression persists even when circumstances improve and typically requires professional mental health treatment. That said, untreated burnout can lead to depression, which is why early intervention with tools like this burnout self assessment matters. If you're experiencing symptoms that affect your entire life and persist regardless of work situation, please consult a mental health professional.
Is cybersecurity high-paying?
Compared to many entry-level tech jobs, the starting salary for cyber security is competitive. As you get better in incident response, cloud security, or threat hunting, you will definitely gain more. Application security, red teaming, and security engineering specifically offer top-level wages. Jobs in high-risk industries often come with premium compensation, including good hourly rates for on-call and incident response work.
How fast can I get into cyber security?
If you already know IT basics like networking, Linux or Windows, and scripting, a focused plan that includes labs, SOC tickets, a home lab, and a few specific certifications can help you secure entry-level cyber security jobs in a few months. If you don’t have any IT experience, it will take longer. Without any experience, you can start with help desk or IT support positions, and seek out junior analyst internships. At the same time, you can build a portfolio showcasing SIEM dashboards, detections, and vulnerability scans.
Will AI take over cyber security jobs?
AI makes detection and analysis faster, but it doesn’t mean humans are not necessary. Quite the contrary, AI makes phishing, malware, and social engineering easier and stealthier. This will make skilled analysts and engineers more in demand. To analyze more, check out our AI job risk analyzer to know which jobs AI will replace.
What is the lowest salary in cyber security?
Entry-level or trainee roles, such as intern, SOC Tier 1, or junior analyst, have the lowest pay bands for cyber security specialists. These can vary a lot by region and sector. Government and education positions might start with lower salaries than those in the private sector, but they usually offer strong benefits and training. As you take on responsibilities like on-call duty, incident response, cloud tasks, or compliance work, pay usually increases quickly.
Is a cyber security job stressful?
It is challenging, especially if you work in incident response or SOC environments where alerts, and off-hours work happen often. Stress usually decreases when you enter engineering, architecture, or GRC, where work focuses more on projects. Healthy teams take turns with on-call duties, automate frequent alerts, and create playbooks to lower burnout.
Is cyber security worth a career?
For many, yes: meaningful work, strong demand, and clear growth paths. It is possible to move from SOC analyst to roles like security engineer, appsec or cloud security. If you enjoy solving problems, learning continuously, and protecting systems and people, cyber security salaries and influence in the firm is top-nothc.