Compliance Officer Salary in New York: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A compliance officer in New York earns a median of $90,080 a year, or about $43.31 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most of the field sits between $66,670 at the 25th percentile and $119,430 at the 75th, with the top 10 percent clearing $142,370. That median runs roughly $9,350 above the national figure for the role.

How New York compares to the national median

New York pays compliance officers well above the national bar. The BLS puts the national median for the role at $80,730, so the New York median of $90,080 sits $9,350 higher. In percentage terms that’s about 11.6 percent more than a typical compliance officer earns across the country.

The state mean tells a similar story. New York’s average annual wage for the role is $96,120, which lands above the median because a band of high earners in banking, asset management, and insurance pulls the top of the distribution upward. When the mean sits well above the median like this, it usually signals a long right tail: a cluster of senior and specialist roles paying far more than the middle of the pack.

One caveat on that hourly figure: most compliance officers are salaried and exempt, so the $43.31 is a way to compare pay across states, not a clock-in rate. The national hourly equivalent of $38.81 comes straight from the national median, and the $4.50 spread mirrors the annual gap.

It helps to read the New York premium against the role’s full national range too. The national median is $80,730, and New York’s $90,080 median would land near the 60th percentile of the national distribution. In plain terms, a typical New York compliance officer out-earns most of the country at the same job title. The reason is structural: New York hosts the densest cluster of regulated financial institutions in the United States, and those firms compete for the same compliance talent, which keeps the local median elevated even before you factor in any individual specialty.

Compliance officer pay in New York by experience

Experience moves this number more than almost anything else. A new compliance analyst supporting a team starts near the bottom decile, while a compliance director or BSA/AML officer running a program sits near the top. The BLS percentile breakdown is the cleanest way to see that climb, since each percentile reflects a real point in the New York wage distribution.

The jump from the 25th to the 75th percentile is the part worth studying. That’s a $52,760 swing inside the same job title and the same state. Crossing it usually means moving from a generalist compliance role into a specialty that carries regulatory risk: anti-money-laundering, securities supervision under FINRA, or healthcare privacy work tied to HIPAA. Each of those niches has a thinner talent pool and a heavier consequence if it goes wrong, which is exactly what employers pay up for.

The early-career floor deserves a note too. At $53,330, the 10th percentile in New York still edges out the median in several smaller states, so even a junior compliance role here carries a respectable base. The trade is cost of living, which we’ll get to in the take-home section.

It’s also worth naming what each stage tends to look like on the ground. The 10th and 25th percentiles, $53,330 to $66,670, usually map to compliance analysts and associates: testing controls, filing reports, and supporting a senior officer. The median at $90,080 is the seasoned individual contributor who owns part of a program. The 75th percentile of $119,430 is where you find compliance managers and specialists running a defined risk area, and the 90th at $142,370 is leadership. The single biggest determinant of where you land is industry. The same five years of experience is worth more inside a broker-dealer or a global bank than inside a smaller nonprofit or a government office, which is why two compliance officers with identical resumes can sit two percentiles apart purely on employer.

Compliance officer salary by New York metro

Where you sit in the state matters as much as your title. The New York City metro towers over every other market, both in pay and in sheer headcount. It holds nearly all of the state’s compliance jobs and pays a median more than $18,000 above the next-closest metro.

The New York City metro median of $101,050 reflects the concentration of banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, and insurers headquartered in Manhattan and northern New Jersey. That’s where the BSA/AML and securities compliance roles live, and those are the roles carrying the top percentiles from the table above.

The upstate picture is steadier. Buffalo at $82,450, Albany at $81,190, Rochester at $80,320, and Syracuse at $79,710 cluster within about $2,700 of each other, and all four land close to the national median. Albany in particular draws on state government and regulatory work, while Rochester and Buffalo lean on healthcare systems and regional banks. The pay is lower than the city, but so is the rent, and the gap between the two can flip once housing enters the math.

If you’re weighing a move, read these medians as the middle of each local market, not a ceiling. A senior compliance officer in Buffalo can still reach six figures; the metro median simply tells you what a typical role pays before you factor in specialty and experience.

The employment column is the other half of the story. The New York City metro holds 23,380 of the state’s roughly 23,500 compliance jobs, which means every other metro combined accounts for only a sliver of the total. Buffalo has 2,180 roles, Albany 1,710, Rochester 1,140, and Syracuse 580. For a job seeker that concentration cuts two ways. The city offers depth, with thousands of roles and easy lateral movement between employers, while the upstate metros offer a smaller but less crowded field where a strong candidate can stand out faster. The pay gap between the top metro and the rest, about $18,600 between New York City and Buffalo, is the price of that depth, and a chunk of it gets eaten by housing once you compare real budgets rather than gross salaries.

Take-home pay after tax in New York

Gross salary is the headline; take-home is what lands in your account. New York layers a state income tax on top of federal tax and FICA, so the effective bite grows as you move up the percentiles. Here’s how the four key stages break down for a single filer, using the figures from our New York tax model.

At the median, a New York compliance officer keeps $67,401 of a $90,080 salary, an effective rate of about 25.2 percent once federal, FICA, and state tax come out. That works out to $5,617 a month. The effective rate climbs to 27.8 percent at the 75th percentile and 29.4 percent at the 90th, so the senior earner on $142,370 takes home $100,569, or $8,381 a month.

Watch how the rate steps up as you climb. At the entry level the effective rate is about 20.2 percent, so the $53,330 earner keeps $42,561, or $3,547 a month. Each percentile up adds roughly two to five points to the effective rate because more income falls into higher federal and state brackets. The practical takeaway is that a raise from the median to the 75th percentile, a $29,350 jump in gross, adds $18,865 to your net, not the full amount. The difference, about $10,485, is the extra federal, FICA, and New York tax on that band. It’s still a strong return on a promotion, but plan your budget around the net, not the headline.

Now the comparison that actually changes decisions. Take that same $90,080 median salary to Texas, a state with no income tax, and the take-home jumps to $71,757. That’s $4,356 more in your pocket every year for the identical gross pay, purely because Texas skips the state income line that costs a New York earner $4,357 at this level. If you’re comparing a New York offer against a Texas one at the same number, the New York paycheck is the smaller one before you’ve paid a cent of rent.

Which is the framing that matters most: net pay minus local housing is the number to live on. New York City rent runs far above Dallas or Houston, so the $4,356 tax gap is only the opening line of a much wider cost spread. A median compliance salary that feels strong on paper in Manhattan can buy less monthly breathing room than a lower gross in an upstate metro or a no-tax state. Run your own offer through the New York paycheck calculator before you sign, and if you want help modeling deductions and withholding at filing time, tools like TurboTax can estimate your real liability.

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How to earn more as a compliance officer in New York

The percentile spread shows there’s real room above the median. Closing the gap from $90,080 toward the $119,430 to $142,370 band is mostly about specialty, certification, and industry. Concrete moves that pull pay up in this state:

• Move into financial-services compliance. The New York City metro median of $101,050 sits more than $11,000 above the upstate metros because banks, broker-dealers, and asset managers cluster there. A securities or AML role in that market is the fastest route to the upper percentiles.
• Earn an AML or BSA credential. Certifications like the CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist) signal you can run the exact program that financial firms get fined for failing. That specialty is what separates the 50th percentile from the 75th.
• Add a regulatory specialty employers can’t easily hire. Securities supervision, healthcare privacy, or data-protection compliance each carry a premium because the talent pool is thin and the regulatory exposure is high.
• Build toward a director or program-lead title. The 90th percentile of $142,370 is largely compliance directors and chief compliance officers who own a program rather than support one. Management responsibility is the lever for the top band.
• Target the right employer mix. Large banks, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies headquartered in or around the city pay above hospitals, nonprofits, and government for the same nominal role.
• Keep current on regulation. Short courses on AML, securities law, or data privacy through platforms like Coursera can shore up a resume gap before you interview for a specialty role.

Job outlook for compliance officers in New York

New York employs about 23,500 compliance officers, and the vast majority of them, roughly 23,380, work in the New York City metro. That concentration is the clearest signal in the data: this is a finance-driven market, and demand tracks the regulatory load on banks, broker-dealers, insurers, and asset managers.

Compliance tends to be counter-cyclical in a useful way. When regulators tighten enforcement or a new rule lands, firms staff up to keep pace, which keeps hiring steadier than many corporate functions. The depth of the New York City market also means lateral moves are realistic; with more than 23,000 roles in one metro, changing employers without changing cities is a genuine option. To see what’s live right now, scanning openings on a board like ZipRecruiter gives you a read on which specialties and titles are paying at the top of the range.

For a candidate, the headcount also sets realistic expectations on negotiation. In a market this deep, an employer knows there are alternatives, but so do you. The wide gap between the median and the 75th percentile, $90,080 to $119,430, is room that exists because firms pay up for proven specialty experience. If you bring an AML track record or securities supervision history, the data says that experience is worth real money in this state, and the volume of competing employers gives you the standing to ask for it.

Related and higher-paying roles in New York

Compliance officers sit alongside several analytical and program roles that pay more in New York. If your skills travel, these are worth a look. Both medians below come from the BLS for New York and are compared against the $90,080 compliance officer median.

A Management Analyst in New York earns a median of $112,250, which is $22,170 more than a compliance officer here. A Project Management Specialist earns a median of $121,040, or $30,960 more. Both roles reward the same instincts that make a good compliance officer, process discipline, documentation, and stakeholder management, so they’re realistic lateral or step-up targets rather than full career changes.

Compliance officer salary in New York: FAQ

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 2025; ThePayGuide New York tax model, 2026 tax year. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.