Actuary Salary in New York 2026,
$156,480 Median | BLS Data by City

New York actuaries earn a median $156,480 a year, $75.23 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $106,140 and $211,330 and a full range of $82,250 to $277,800. That is 20.4% above the $130,000 national median, before New York's state and, for city residents, municipal income tax.

New York-Newark-Jersey City at $161,460, far ahead of Rochester at $130,220, Buffalo-Cheektowaga at $110,190 and Syracuse at $101,430. The fifty-thousand-dollar gap between the metropolitan area and Buffalo reflects what the work is in each place: insurance headquarters, reinsurance and consulting in the city; regional insurance operations upstate.

No. Actuarial work is not licensed by any US state, including New York. Professional standing comes from the Society of Actuaries and the Casualty Actuarial Society through their examination sequences and the Associate and Fellow designations. New York regulates the work rather than the practitioner: statements of actuarial opinion filed with the Department of Financial Services must be signed by an actuary meeting the profession's qualification standards.

State rates run progressively to 10.9%, and at the median of $156,480 an actuary is well into the upper brackets. A five-borough resident pays an additional 3.078% to 3.876% city income tax on top — a substantial consideration in a profession concentrated in Manhattan offices, which is why many actuaries commute from Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey or Connecticut. Employees also fund Paid Family Leave at 0.432% of wages in 2026, capped at $411.91.

More than anything else early in the career. The Society of Actuaries and Casualty Actuarial Society examination sequences take most candidates several years, and New York employers structure pay around progress through them — salary increases attach to each exam passed, alongside study time and exam bonuses. That is the mechanism that carries an actuary from the $82,250 tenth percentile through the $106,140 twenty-fifth to the $156,480 median. Fellowship is what opens the $211,330 seventy-fifth percentile and above.

Because the employers are. Insurance and reinsurance headquarters, the large actuarial consulting firms, investment banks with insurance-linked activity and the Department of Financial Services itself are all in or around New York City. Upstate actuarial employment — Rochester at $130,220, Buffalo-Cheektowaga at $110,190, Syracuse at $101,430 — sits in regional insurance operations doing valuation and reserving work at a different scale and pay level. The location quotient of 1.58 is overwhelmingly a metropolitan phenomenon.

The New York sample is small at about 2,630 actuaries, so percentile values move between vintages. The band also spans the entire exam progression, from students at $82,250 to Fellows and chief actuaries at $277,800, which is a fifteen-year career arc rather than a distribution of comparable jobs. And bonuses, which are a substantial part of actuarial compensation in the metropolitan insurance and consulting sector, are not consistently captured in the wage figure.

Practice area and signing authority. Casualty actuaries working on reinsurance and specialty lines command different rates from life and health actuaries in traditional carriers, and the New York market has an unusually large reinsurance and specialty presence. Above that, qualification to sign statements of actuarial opinion for filing with the Department of Financial Services carries professional liability and correspondingly higher compensation — it is the practical marker of the $211,330 seventy-fifth percentile and the chief actuary roles beyond it.