How much are the risk pros making?

Canadian risk pros are making a median annual base salary of $101,000 as of June 1, 2019. That’s up 3.6% over the previous year, according to the Risk Management Compensation Survey published by the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS).

Education and experience play a role in how much risk professionals earned, the RIMS benchmark survey notes.

Those with a degree higher than a bachelor’s typically earned $15,000 more than those who didn’t; those who have a bachelor’s degree earned $31,000 more than those without one. Forty-five per cent of professionals in Canada have a bachelor’s and 22% have an associate’s degree.

Furthermore, 85% of Canadian risk professionals have at least one industry-related certification or designation, something for which RIMS president Laura Langone praised Canadians in an interview with Canadian Underwriter.

Risk professionals in Alberta earned the highest median salary at $115,000, well ahead of Ontario ($105,000) and Quebec ($104,000).

When it comes to experience, those with at least 25 years in the risk management field had a median salary almost $71,000 higher than those with fewer than five years under their belt. The median tenure of Canadian professionals is 13 years; eight years of that is typically spent with their current employer. The median age of a Canadian risk management professional is 47 years.

The survey also found that men in the field out-earn women. The survey suggested that this might be explained in part because more men in the field (78%) have at least a bachelor’s degree than women (53%).

Just under 200 Canadian risk management professionals responded to the survey, which canvassed compensation for various risk-related positions such as chief risk officer/vice president of risk management (median salary: $200,000); director of insurance and risk management (median salary: $130,000); and risk management analysts (median salary: $80,000).

American risk professionals out-earn their Canadian counterparts. A risk management professional in the United States has a median base salary of US$118,000, or about CA$155,000. U.S. risk professionals also saw their salaries increase at a rate of 3.6% over last year. The median age of U.S. risk professionals is 50 years old; just 63% have at least one industry-related certification or designation.

The RIMS survey also looks at benefits packages offered to risk management pros. Nearly all are offered medical coverage by their employer; retirement plans are just as common. They’re offered a median of five weeks of paid time off, be it for vacation, sick time, or paid time off.

Most of the respondents work in government (18%). Insurance (15%) and education (11%) made up the other industries ranked in the Top 3. Overall, the average annual revenue of the respondents’ companies was $970 million, employing 3,150 people. The median risk management employee count at a company is three and 28% of them report to the financial management area of their company.