Actuary Salary Comparison Tool

What Do Actuaries Earn Across Credential Levels in 2026?

Actuarial compensation rises sharply at each credential milestone, from student analyst through ASA or ACAS to Fellow, with Fellowship marking the largest single pay step.

The actuarial career is one of the few professional tracks where compensation is explicitly tied to a credentialing ladder. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OOH, the median annual wage for actuaries reached $125,770 in May 2024. But that figure blends every credential stage, from exam-stage analysts to senior Fellows, so it understates the variation any individual actuary faces.

PayScale data updated in February 2026 shows a clear arc by experience: entry-level actuaries with under one year of experience report a median near $69,000, while those with ten to nineteen years of experience report a median closer to $143,000. The FSA and FCAS credential levels amplify these figures further. DW Simpson (2025) reports that FSAs with five to seven years in consulting or insurance averaged between $155,000 and $190,000, a year-over-year increase of roughly six to eight percent.

The implication is practical: knowing where you fall in the distribution for your specific credential stage, not the profession as a whole, determines whether you have leverage to negotiate. A newly credentialed ASA benchmarked against all actuaries will appear above average. Benchmarked against other ASAs in the same segment, the picture changes sharply.

How Does Industry Segment Shape Actuarial Compensation in 2026?

P&C, consulting, and life insurance actuaries tend to earn more than pension and government actuaries at the same credential level, with gaps sometimes exceeding tens of thousands of dollars.

Most salary surveys report a single actuary median, but segment differences are large enough to matter for any negotiation. Property-casualty, health insurance, life insurance, consulting, pension, and government sectors each offer distinct compensation structures. Within the consulting segment specifically, total compensation packages tend to be highest at the Fellow level, while government and pension actuaries trade compensation ceiling for greater job stability.

The actuarial pain point here is real: industry surveys are often too broad to use directly in a negotiation. An FCAS in property-casualty consulting faces a very different market than an ASA in a state government pension role, even at similar years of experience. DW Simpson's 2025 salary trends report highlights that FSA compensation in consulting or insurance has grown faster than the profession-wide average, reinforcing the value of segment-specific benchmarking.

When using a salary comparison tool, always select the closest available industry segment rather than defaulting to a general finance category. The difference between a well-calibrated benchmark and a generic average can be substantial at the negotiation table.

When Should an Actuary Request a Raise Based on Exam Progress?

Each passed exam, Associate attainment, and Fellowship credentialing each create distinct leverage points for a structured raise request supported by published market data.

The actuarial exam timeline creates something most professionals do not have: predictable, defensible milestones for compensation review. According to SalaryCube (2025), attaining Associate status typically triggers a 15 to 25 percent salary increase relative to pre-Associate pay. Employers competing for credentialing talent have strong incentives to reward progress proactively, because losing a candidate mid-pipeline is costly.

The exam-bonus structure reinforces this: many employers offer bonuses of several thousand dollars per passed exam, plus a base salary review. The practical advice is to treat each exam pass as a scheduled market calibration moment. Pull current salary data for your credential stage before each conversation, and present your request as alignment to market, not as a personal ask.

The most common mistake actuaries make is waiting for an annual review cycle when a more immediate trigger, the exam result itself, provides a stronger rationale. The data supports acting quickly: DW Simpson (2025) found that ASA and ACAS candidates saw approximately five percent year-over-year salary increases in 2025, meaning the market reprices credential holders regularly.

How Does Geographic Location Affect Actuary Salaries in 2026?

Major actuarial hubs like Hartford, Chicago, and New York pay meaningfully more than smaller markets, though remote-work policies are compressing but not eliminating geographic premiums.

Actuarial work has historically concentrated in a handful of cities: Hartford, Connecticut, Chicago, New York, Minneapolis, and a few others where large insurers and consulting firms are headquartered. These hubs commanded meaningful salary premiums over smaller markets. According to Acturhire (2025), a specialized actuarial job placement platform, major metropolitan areas pay approximately 20 to 30 percent more than rural areas for entry-level actuarial roles, based on their market data.

Remote work has introduced a new complexity. Candidates now benchmark their offers against national data, but some employers apply cost-of-living adjustments to remote compensation, anchoring pay to the candidate's home location rather than the job's traditional market. For actuaries considering relocation or remote arrangements, benchmarking both local and national figures before negotiating avoids the situation where an employer's location adjustment reduces what would otherwise be a strong national offer.

The BLS OOH projects about 2,400 actuary job openings per year through 2034, with demand distributed across sectors nationwide. A rising supply of remote-capable roles means geographic leverage is real but requires more nuanced benchmarking than a simple city-versus-city comparison.

What Role Does the Data Science Premium Play in Actuarial Salaries in 2026?

Actuaries who combine credentialed actuarial training with Python, R, or SQL skills earn a documented salary premium above peers at the same credential level, according to published recruiter data.

The actuarial profession has evolved rapidly as insurers and consulting firms integrate machine learning, predictive modeling, and large data pipelines into core actuarial workflows. According to DW Simpson (2025), actuaries who pair traditional credentials with data science skills including Python, R, and SQL earn approximately 10 to 15 percent more than peers at the same exam and credential stage.

This premium is most valuable at the Associate level, where credential differentiation is limited. Two ASAs with the same number of passed exams and similar experience can diverge in market value based on technical fluency alone. Employers competing for candidates who can both price risk under traditional actuarial standards and build predictive models are willing to pay a meaningful premium for that combination.

For actuaries early in their careers, this creates a clear priority: pursuing data science fluency alongside exam progress compounds into a higher baseline before reaching Fellowship. For mid-career actuaries, documenting specific modeling contributions in performance reviews and on resumes makes the technical premium visible in internal compensation discussions as well as external offers.