Salary guidelines for insurance agents will vary greatly since you can find so many different positions within the field. Positions within the insurance field include adjusters, collections, risk assessors, underwriters and more. Additionally, insurance industry salaries will vary depending on whether you handle automobile, property, life or health insurance.

When looking at insurance industry salary tools for beginners, you will want to see the different pay scales and how the tools reach these figures. Many times data reported to the IRS will help agencies make estimates on insurance salary.

1. Narrow down your choice of insurance jobs. Instead of looking through a massive amount of salary information for the insurance industry, you can browse specific positions.

2. Gather data about insurance industry salaries. As a beginner, you will want to browse all of the figures including entry level, mid level and executive insurance salaries.

3. Get insurance industry salary information specific to your area. You can use salary tools to see how much others are making in the same job within your location.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

View national figures for insurance industry salary guidelines

Insurance industry salary chart will likely include years of experience as well as number of licensing exams completed. You should try to look for insurance industry salary surveys that include not only salaries, but actual pay information. Some sites may not report bonuses and other compensation that can affect how much a person earns.

I recommend: On DW Simpson, you will find insurance agent salary charts for property, casualty, life, health and pension insurance positions. You can sign up for notifications when the business insurance salaries are updated. PayScale has a tool that separates insurance agent salaries by years of experience.

Narrow down your results with a site specific insurance industry salary tool

Although general guidelines can prove helpful, you still want to use insurance industry salary tools to find out site specific guidelines. For instance, an agent in New York will likely earn a much different salary than an agent in Wisconsin.

I recommend: The Salary Wizard on Salary.com will give you insurance industry salary guidelines based on your job title and zip code. Your personalized data will also include bonus and benefits information. Simply Hired has a similar tool that you can use and then compare the data.

Use insurance industry salary tools to browse different job title earnings

If you don't have a specific position in mind, you may want to use salary tools to see how several different jobs pay. Pay scales will greatly differ for clerks, agents, raters, coders and brokers, just to name a few different positions in the field.

I recommend: CBSalary is the salary tool website available from CareerBuilder. Before using their calculators, you can view salary information for multiple jobs in insurance. CareerOneStop has a search feature that also allows you to look at salary data collected on different insurance jobs.

As you might expect with one of the largest industries in the nation, insurance industry salaries and wages are a big part of the US eceonomy, averaging just over $3 billion in 2006. That's a lot of cash flowing around. As a firm professional or human resources manager, it's up to you to determine appropriate insurance agent salary and come up with related policies and performance guidelines.

Although determining salary and setting guidelines can be difficult, many insurance industry salary tools exist online to help you with the task from researching salaries to finding a consulting firm or software.

When tackling salary issues, also consider this salary information for the insurance industry:

1. While most administrative workers can work a 40-hour, 5-day week, others must accommodate varying hours. You may want to adjust insurance salaries accordingly and reward those willing to work necessary odd hours.

2. Most insurance industry positions require some sort of formal training or college degree. Knowledge of the industry and any specialized training should be factored into insurance industry salary ranges.

3. Insurance career salary should also include other benefits as a total package to present to a potential employee. Annual bonuses, retirement investment plans, insurance and paid vacation are standard.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Research current insurance industry salaries

A number of tools are available for research into salaries. Most providers utilize salary surveys and compile their findings into reports.

I recommend: Read employee surveys in the insurance industry from Vault. You can get basic details for free, though you may consider signing up for a gold membership to access more. You'll also find insurance industry salary surveys at Salary.com. You can even search by location and company size.

Consider hiring a consulting firm to help set insurance salary

For a complete overhaul of your existing compensation system, or if you're a new firm starting from scratch, it may be best to hire an expert. Look into hiring a consulting firm specializing in the field of compensation.

I recommend: From salary administration, executive and sales compensation, and performance management the experts at Compensation Resources can help you with your needs. Browse through their case studies to see how their work has helped previous clients. Check out the services offered by Steven Hall & Partners. Their work includes the development of compensation programs tailored to your business from the concept stage to implementation.

Utilize software to employ insurance industry salary guidelines

A number of software options exist when it comes to compensation and performance management.

I recommend: Check out the features of Halogen Software's eCompensation software. Explore it further by requesting a free trial, scheduling a demo or getting a product tour. Authoria Inc. Talent Management system helps businesses meet objectives in the areas of compensation. Click on the left-hand side links for a free download or to discover more about features and capabilities. Doing so requires signing up.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Job growth in the insurance industry (and corresponding growth in insurance industry salaries) may be limited by corporate downsizing, new technology and increasing direct mail, telephone and Internet sales. Growing areas include health insurance and the industry's expansion into securities and mutual funds.