Insurance agents and brokers may value their services similarly across the country, but just one state in the Southeast region leads the country in how it compensates its insurance professionals – and one pays among the least – according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While the median income for insurance sales agents increased in 2014, currently sitting at $63,730, workers in some parts of the country have enjoyed even greater growth. Those in the 90th percentile nationwide, for example, bring home an average $119,970 – an increase from the $117,830 agents in this percentile earned the previous year.
Those in the highest-paying states also continued to see their salaries increase.
Insurance Business America took a look at the median income of those in the 50th percentile for each state to discover where insurance agents are being most handsomely rewarded and where they are struggling.
It is, of course, important to bear in mind that compensation structures for producers differ from agency to agency and may influence some of these figures.
Agents in the following 15 states make the highest median wages in the US:
1. Rhode Island – $88,560
2. New York – $80,540
3. Minnesota – $79,920
4. Massachusetts – $78,780
5. Illinois – $73,860
6. Kansas – $72,910
7. New Jersey – $72,810
8. Vermont – $71,560
9. California – $71,510
10. Connecticut – $70,150
11. New Hampshire – $68,800
12. Pennsylvania – $68,070
13. Florida – $67,360
14. Wisconsin – $65,540
15. Delaware – $65,270
On the other end of the spectrum, agents in the following 10 states are paid the least for the work.
40. Nebraska – $54,650
41. Tennessee – $54,570
42. Mississippi – $53,520
43. Nevada – $52,150
44. Arkansas – $51,040
45. Louisiana – $50,160
46. Montana – $49,180
47. West Virginia – $48,620
The BLS noted that the best-paid agents often do business with outpatient care centers and securities and commodities firms. Job concentration may also be a factor—each of the top 10 best-paying states had an agent job concentration of between two and four producers per 1,000 jobs, suggesting that where producers have larger shares of total employment, average income increases.
