article · Tech pay, honestly
CompTIA PenTest+ Salary: Security Role Pay Context
Direct answer
What to do
PenTest+ does not have its own salary. The closest Learnerside occupation anchor is Information Security Analysts, whose May 2025 national median was $129,180 according to BLS. That is pay for an occupation spanning locations, specialties, employers, and experience levels—not entry pay and not an outcome caused by PenTest+. Use the role context first, then decide whether PenTest+ fits the authorized security-testing work you want.
Official sources: BLS Information Security Analysts pay and occupation context · CompTIA PenTest+ exam and recommended experience
Use this pay context when
- You are comparing PenTest+ with authorized security-testing or security-analyst work, not treating the credential as a salary category.
- You will adjust the national occupation figure for location, experience, specialty, and responsibility before using it in a decision.
- You are deciding whether PenTest+ fits the work after checking the role tasks, foundations, and practical evidence employers can assess.
Do not treat the figure as
- An entry-level salary, a likely first offer, or what a new PenTest+ holder should expect to earn.
- Proof that passing PenTest+ causes a raise, promotion, job offer, or salary premium.
- A reason to pursue PenTest+ when your actual target is general IT, defensive operations, or another kind of security work.
Reviewed 2026-08-28
Certification details change. Always confirm final pricing, availability, and credential terms on the official provider page linked in the sources below before you pay for anything.
Detailed evidence, examples, and source notes
Last updated 2026-08-13 — the article text's own revision date; dated evidence on this page carries its own check date. See the Citation Ledger at the foot for this page's sources.
PenTest+ does not have its own salary. Learnerside maps the nearby Cybersecurity Analyst decision to BLS Information Security Analysts, whose May 2025 national median was $129,180. That figure covers an occupation across employers, locations, specialties, and experience levels; it is not entry pay or a PenTest+-caused outcome. Use the role context first, then decide whether PenTest+ fits your security-testing path.
Next decision
Use Learnerside to compare the role, metro, and evidence behind the credential before treating any salary number as personal. Review the Cybersecurity Analyst decision behind this pay context.
More on CompTIA PenTest+
- Is CompTIA PenTest+ worth it?
- Is CompTIA PenTest+ hard?
- CompTIA PenTest+ pass-rate reality
- CompTIA PenTest+ certification page
Occupation pay context
CompTIA PenTest+ appears in role pathways, but pay still follows the work. Use the table as a sourced context layer, not as a promise.
| Role context | BLS/O*NET occupation anchor | National median, BLS OEWS May 2025 | BLS 2024-2034 projection | Why this matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cybersecurity Analyst | Information Security Analysts (15-1212) | $129,180 | 28.5% change; 16 thousand annual openings | Use this as occupation context, not as a credential-caused salary |
Read the median as the midpoint of the wage distribution for workers in the occupation — half earn less, half earn more — not as entry pay. Information security analysts (15-1212) have a 10th percentile of $75,090 and BLS Employment Projections list typical entry as Bachelor's degree, with less than 5 years of related work experience typically expected. Those figures describe everyone already working in the occupation, people with many years in it included, so they are not entry pay and not a projection of what you would earn; the entry requirements above are BLS's description of the occupation, not Learnerside's opinion about you. Wage figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release, read 2026-07-21; the link is in the Citation Ledger below.
- How much do tech jobs pay?
- What a SOC code is
Metro pay context
Location changes salary context. The table below uses the first mapped occupation anchor, Information Security Analysts (15-1212), and shows selected metro medians with BEA price-level context where available.
| Metro, primary occupation anchor | Median pay, BLS OEWS May 2025 | Cost-adjusted context, BEA RPP |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $176,120 | about $159,496 |
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | $143,640 | about $146,337 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $161,780 | about $145,573 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $162,310 | about $140,391 |
| Huntsville, AL | $130,330 | about $140,031 |
These are occupation/geography figures. They do not say what a new credential holder, a first offer, or a specific employer will pay.
- How much do tech jobs pay?
- What regional price parities mean
What the role work looks like
The practical salary question is whether the credential helps you prove the work behind the mapped role. O*NET task evidence helps keep that grounded.
| Role context | O*NET task/work evidence to look for in your projects |
|---|---|
| Cybersecurity Analyst | Develop plans to safeguard computer files against accidental or unauthorized modification, destruction, or disclosure and to meet emergency data processing needs; Monitor current reports of computer viruses to determine when to update virus protection systems |
What to do next
1. Choose the target work before interpreting a salary headline.
2. Use BLS occupation and metro figures as context, not as credential-holder or entry pay.
3. Compare the O*NET task evidence with work you can already explain or demonstrate.
4. Use the credential only when its scope closes a specific knowledge or evidence gap.
5. Follow the reviewed next decision above before paying.
Frequently asked questions
What should I compare instead of a cert salary headline?
Compare the target role, BLS occupation and metro context, day-to-day task evidence, and whether the credential scope fills a specific knowledge or evidence gap.
Related, with the cited detail
- How much do tech jobs pay?
- Are IT certifications worth it?
- What employers ask for
Core source records
This table lists the page’s core content records and when they were checked. Claim-specific citations appear beside the relevant text and may not be repeated here.
| ID | Supports | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| CIT-01 | The certification page identifies the credential, but salary is not attributed to the credential. | https://www.comptia.org/en-us/certifications/pentest/ | 2026-08-23 |
| CIT-02 | Occupation-level pay and metro pay context. | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — OEWS national wage data | 2026-07-21 |
| CIT-03 | Occupation outlook and annual openings context. | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employment Projections occupational data | 2026-09-09 |
| CIT-04 | Day-to-day role task evidence. | https://www.onetonline.org/ | 2026-06-07 |