How much do underwriters make in 2026?
Insurance underwriters earn a national median of $81,370 a year, or $39.12 an hour, according to BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 13-2053, with the bottom 10% near $55,530 and the top 10% at $145,160 across 105,420 underwriters. This is an exact occupational match, which makes the shape of the distribution easy to read, and the shape tells a clear story. Personal lines underwriting has been substantially automated: rating engines and predictive models now bind most standard auto and homeowners business without a human decision, which has hollowed out the entry level of this occupation. What remains, and what the upper half of this band describes, is judgement underwriting on risks the models cannot price. Commercial property and casualty, professional and management liability, cyber, construction, marine, surety and excess and surplus lines all require an underwriter who can read a submission, price an exposure with imperfect data and negotiate terms with a broker. Line of business and binding authority are therefore the pay variables that matter. BLS projects the occupation to shrink 2.6% through 2034 with roughly 8,200 openings a year. → Full underwriter career guide, career path, credentials & placement →
Note: $81,370 blends every experience level and every setting in this occupation. For pay by level alone, see Pay by Level below.
- Underwriters earn a national median $81,370/yr ($39.12/hr) (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 13-2053); the P10 to P90 range is $55,530 to $145,160.
- Automation has hollowed out standard personal lines underwriting, so the surviving occupation is weighted toward judgement work on risk that models cannot price.
- Line of business and binding authority drive pay: professional liability, cyber, construction, marine, surety and excess and surplus lines sit in the upper quartile of this band.
- BLS projects a 2.6% contraction through 2034 with roughly 8,200 openings a year, which is a shrinking occupation with a strengthening specialist core.
US Underwriter Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
Pay by Level · BLS OEWS May 2025
How much do underwriters earn at each level?
BLS OEWS publishes one blended wage for the whole occupation and does not break pay out by credential or practice level. The levels below distribute the published percentile range across the credential tiers this role actually hires at.
Level medians are aligned to the BLS OEWS May 2025 percentile distribution for SOC 13-2053; GlobalCybers does not yet publish a verified placement sample for this role, so no verified median is shown.
Methodology & Sources
How the numbers on this page are built
Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 13-2053, United States national estimate. Public, methodologically rigorous, but sampled on a rolling 3-year basis and published ~10 months after collection — so it reflects wages that are already 1–2 years old by the time you read them.
Level and certification medians: distributed across the published BLS percentile range for this SOC code (P10 through P90) according to the credential tiers this occupation actually hires at. They are modeled reference points, not separately surveyed wages.
State and metro figures: modeled — the BLS national median multiplied by the GlobalCybers state wage index, and for metros by the published metro index for that state. They are estimates of local pay, not BLS state or metropolitan-area observations, and are labelled as modeled in the tables below.
No verified placement sample:GlobalCybers does not yet publish a placement median for this role, so no "verified" figure appears anywhere on this page.
Pay by Career Level
How much does an underwriter earn at each career stage?
Underwriter pay follows binding authority and line complexity. Each median below is anchored to the BLS OEWS distribution for SOC 13-2053.
By State
Which states pay underwriters the most in 2026?
These are modeled state estimates, not BLS state observations: the national median for SOC 13-2053 scaled by the GlobalCybers state wage index. Underwriting is desk work that carriers concentrate in a handful of home-office and regional-hub locations, several of them deliberately in lower-cost states, so the modeled spread below reads as cost of living rather than as a hiring map.
6 of 51 state guides shown, ranked by median. Bar is relative to California ($93,580), the highest-paying state shown. See all role salary guides →
By Metro
Which cities pay underwriters the most?
Metro figures are modeled, national median times state wage index times published metro index, not BLS metropolitan observations. Specialty and excess and surplus lines underwriting concentrates in particular markets for reasons of capacity and broker access that a metro cost index does not capture.
BLS OEWS MSA estimates, May 2025. Nominal pay — weigh each metro against its cost of living before relocating.
Certification Impact
Which certifications raise an underwriter’s pay the most?
Median annual pay before and after each credential, based on GlobalCybers placement data cross-referenced with BLS. License upgrades move the needle most; stackable certs add on top.
Impacts are not additive, the licensing rows share the same career ladder. Browse all 167 certifications →
Trade Comparison
How does underwriter pay compare to related roles?
BLS OEWS national median across the closest trades. Underwriters sit mid-pack on median but carry one of the widest P10–P90 spreads, licensing and specialization drive the upside.
BLS OEWS May 2025. Verify underwriter wages on BLS.gov →
Take-Home Pay
What does an underwriter actually take home after taxes?
The medians above are gross base wage.
Estimates use 2026 federal brackets, standard deduction, and 7.65% FICA. Actual take-home varies with filing status, deductions, and local tax.
FAQ
Underwriter Salary, Frequently Asked Questions
Underwriter career research journey
Do your homework, then let the network do the rest.Get the job, then keep rising
FreeSet your intent, matching jobs come to you. No applying.
A roadmap to your next licence tier and higher pay band.
Once placed, we cover all certification, licence & career-guide fees.
Hiring underwriters?
Get a verified shortlist of 3–5 qualified candidates in 48 hours
GlobalCybers verifies active state licenses, trade certifications, Intent and right-to-work status before any candidate reaches your portal. Flat $2,999/mo RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), up to 3 concurrent roles, or a free trial (pay on hire). 90-day written guarantee.
Related · Underwriter
Everything for underwriters in one place
Salary data, licensing, interview prep, and hiring, all cross-linked so you (and search engines) can move through the full underwriter cluster.