Top salaries reflect higher profile of security

Jul 8, 2006 12:00 PM, LARRY ANDERSON, EDITOR

The latest industry research suggests that top security professionals are making more money than ever.

According to a compensation survey from Foushée Group Inc., Ft. Myers, Fla., the nation's top corporate Chief Security Officers (CSOs) — those executives in charge of security for global companies in the United States — are paid, on average, more than $293,000 annually in total cash compensation (base salary and bonus). That's an 11 percent increase in the last year, and a 44.7 percent increase since Sept. 11, 2001. Some 64 percent of the organizations participating in the survey had sales revenue of more than $3 billion in 2005.

Notice the emphasis on what has changed since Sept. 11, 2001 — widely acknowledged as a defining moment in terms of modern security practice. The resulting heightened security profile has generally benefited our industry's professionals in terms of career growth and job security, at least in theory.

It is also instructive to notice that the survey represents corporate security professionals at the nation's largest companies. These are the companies with the most money to spend … and the most to lose. These are also the workplaces where the practice of security at the top levels is most likely to include the widest variety of high-level responsibilities, from information security to international threat assessment to regulatory compliance. These so-called CSOs are business guys in the best sense of the word — they look at the big picture with the widest viewpoint and speak the language of the corner office.

It may also be instructive to notice the things that the study results do not explain. For example, if security is so much more important today than it was five years ago, then why do wages for the lower tier of security professionals still lag? Why are we still paying security guards less than $10 an hour if we really appreciate what is at stake in the post-Sept. 11 world?

If security is so much more important these days, why do our companies still short-change their security department's resources. Why do most of us still feel we have to do more with less? Why do security system improvements suffer attacks from the budgetary ax?

As security continues to be integrated into the fabric of the business community and as security professionals take their seats in the management suites, let's also hope for a little trickle-down benefit for all aspects of corporate security.

YOUR THOUGHTS

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