Financial analyst salary: base pay, bonuses and where analysts earn most

If you're weighing a financial analyst offer, the number to start from is $102,740: that was the median annual wage for financial and investment analysts in the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The spread around it is wide, and most of that spread comes from who you work for, where you work and how much of your pay arrives as a bonus that the official figure doesn't count. This guide shows you how to place an offer inside that range.

Quick reference: financial and investment analyst pay, May 2025 OEWS

All wage figures are base-type pay as BLS defines it, which leaves out most bonuses. More on that below.

Who counts as a "financial and investment analyst"

The figures above are for one official occupation code, 13-2051 Financial and investment analysts. BLS defines it as workers who run quantitative analysis of investment programs or the financial data of public or private organizations, including valuing businesses. In practice that one code pulls in a lot of different desks: corporate financial planning and analysis (FP&A) analysts, equity and credit research analysts, investment analysts at asset managers, valuation analysts at consulting firms and analysts on bank finance teams.

The code specifically leaves out three neighbors: budget analysts, financial risk specialists and securities sales agents. That matters if your title has "risk" in it, because risk analysts are counted separately and are paid differently (see the comparison table further down).

One more thing to watch for. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook has a "Financial analysts" profile that combines two occupations, financial and investment analysts plus financial risk specialists, so its headline 2025 median of $103,570 is a blend. When you compare an offer, use the 13-2051 figure if your job is analysis of investments or company finances, and the risk specialist figure if it's mainly measuring credit or market risk.

Reading the range: what the percentiles tell you

A percentile is just a ranking. If you lined up every financial and investment analyst in the country by pay, the 25th percentile is the person a quarter of the way up the line: 25% earn less, 75% earn more. The median (the 50th percentile) is the person in the exact middle. It's usually a better guide than the average, because a handful of very high earners can drag an average up.

Here's how the May 2025 line-up looks:

Two practical readings:

• The middle half is your realistic zone. Half of all analysts sit between $79,290 and $133,340. If an offer lands inside that band, it is ordinary for the occupation as a whole, and your job is to work out where it should sit given your experience, employer type and city.
• The top 10% figure is not a cap. The 90th percentile tells you where the top tenth starts, not how high they go. Because OEWS leaves out most bonuses, the true total pay of the best-paid analysts is higher than any figure in this table.

Also keep in mind how the survey is built. The BLS technical notes explain that the May 2025 estimates combine six survey panels collected over three years, from November 2022 to May 2025, with older responses adjusted forward to the May 2025 reference date. So it's a solid benchmark, but it won't capture changes from the past few months.

Securities firms, banks, insurers and corporate finance teams compared

This is where the wide range comes from. The same title pays very differently depending on the industry of your employer. BLS publishes medians for the industries that employ the most financial and investment analysts:

What this tells you:

• Investment firms pay the most base, by a clear margin. The securities industry median sits well above every other major employer group, and it employs nearly a quarter of all analysts.
• Corporate, consulting and banking analysts cluster close together. Management of companies, professional services and credit intermediation all have medians within a couple of thousand dollars of each other, near the national median.
• Insurance sits lowest of the big five. Insurers' median base is the lowest of the main employer groups, though insurance roles can come with other trade-offs worth asking about, such as hours and stability.

The industry labels are BLS categories. A "bank" might be in credit intermediation (a commercial lender) or in securities (an investment bank or broker-dealer), and those two have quite different medians. If you're not sure which bucket an employer falls into, look at what it mainly does: lending and deposits, or trading, underwriting and managing money.

Where analysts earn most: comparing metros

Location moves pay too, and it's tied to industry. Metros where investment firms cluster tend to post higher analyst wages, because the securities industry pays more.

Connecticut shows this neatly, because two metros in the same state land far apart in the May 2025 data:

The Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury median is far above the national median, while Hartford's sits just below it. Same state, same occupation code, very different results. The difference is the mix of employers in each metro, which is exactly why you should look up your own metro instead of relying on a state or national average.

To find your metro's figures:

1. Go to the BLS May 2025 metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area estimates and pick your metro, or use the May 2025 occupation profiles and open "Financial and Investment Analysts."
2. The O*NET national wages page for this occupation lets you choose a state and shows every metro in it with the 10th, 25th, median, 75th and 90th percentiles side by side.
3. Note the percentile band, not just the median. In a small metro with few analysts, the range can be uneven, so treat thin data as a rough guide.

Cost of living. A higher salary in a high-cost metro isn't automatically a better deal. Compare housing, taxes and commuting costs using an official source such as the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities before you decide a move pays off. For more on weighing cities, see salaries by city.

Why base salary is only part of the story: bonuses

Here's the big gap in the official data. The BLS technical notes define OEWS wages as straight-time, gross pay that excludes premium pay. Included: base rate, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazard pay and incentive pay such as commissions and "production bonuses." Excluded: overtime, severance, shift differentials, "nonproduction bonuses," employer benefit costs and tuition reimbursement.

For most analysts, that means the year-end bonus is not in the numbers. A discretionary annual bonus based on firm and team results is a classic nonproduction bonus, so the medians and percentiles above are close to base salary only. OEWS does not publish separate bonus figures for this occupation, and no BLS page gives a typical bonus percentage for financial analysts.

Bonus design varies by employer. Corporate and insurance roles often state a target as a percentage of base, adjusted for company and individual results. Investment firms more often call the bonus discretionary, and senior roles may defer part of it or pay it in stock. Either way, the offer letter is where you find out, not the BLS tables.

Other parts of the package the official figures also leave out: retirement matches, health coverage, tuition and exam support, signing bonuses and equity. On an offer letter, any of these can be worth more than a few thousand dollars of extra base, so put a value on each before you compare.

What moves pay up: credentials, licenses and role scope

The BLS handbook says a bachelor's degree, typically in finance or a related field such as business, is the usual entry point, and some employers prefer a master's degree. Internships help you get in the door. From there, three things tend to push you up the range.

Licenses. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the main licensing body for the securities industry. Some analyst roles require FINRA registration, for example the research analyst qualification exams for people who publish equity research. BLS notes that most of these licenses need sponsorship from an employer, so firms don't expect you to hold them before you're hired. If a role requires one, ask whether the firm pays for study time and exam fees.

The CFA charter. The Chartered Financial Analyst designation from CFA Institute involves passing a sequence of exams and meeting a work experience requirement. It's widely asked for in investment research and asset management, and less often in corporate FP&A. BLS describes certification as not always required but able to enhance professional standing. None of the official sources used in this guide publishes a dollar premium for holding the charter, so treat any specific figure you see online with caution.

Scope and seniority. The biggest driver inside one employer is usually the size of what you own: one product line versus a whole business unit, or covering a handful of stocks versus running a sector. BLS notes that experienced analysts can move into portfolio or fund manager roles, and that a master's in finance or an MBA can help with that step.

A common path runs analyst, senior analyst, manager or associate, then director or portfolio manager, with titles varying by industry.

How analyst pay compares with nearby roles

Here's how 13-2051 compares with related occupations, using the 2025 medians BLS publishes in the handbook (all based on May 2025 OEWS):

The big jump is into management. Financial managers, such as controllers and finance directors, have a median well above analysts. Risk specialists also earn more at the median, and their top 10% earned more than $196,110 in May 2025. If you're choosing between an analyst track and a risk track early on, that's worth knowing.

Using the data to benchmark an offer

Put the pieces together in this order:

1. Find the right row. Match your job to 13-2051 or to a neighbor like risk specialist or budget analyst.
2. Pick the industry median. Use the table above to see what's typical for your employer's industry.
3. Check your metro's percentile band. Look up the 25th, median and 75th for your metro.
4. Place yourself. New graduates often land toward the 25th percentile, experienced analysts nearer the median to the 75th, senior specialists above that. Adjust for scope.
5. Add the bonus separately. Ask for the target, the range and the payout history, and compare total pay, not base alone.

Example: two offers in different industries

This is a hypothetical example to show the method.

Say you have a couple of years of experience and two offers:

• Offer A, an insurance carrier's corporate finance team. Base salary equal to the insurance industry median, $95,830. The letter states a bonus target as a percentage of base.
• Offer B, an asset manager's investment team. Base salary equal to the securities industry median, $124,370. The letter says the bonus is "discretionary."

On base alone, Offer B looks clearly better. It sits between the national median and the 75th percentile, while Offer A sits between the 25th percentile and the median.

But you can't compare total pay yet. Offer A's bonus has a stated target, so you can calculate a likely range by multiplying the base by the target and by the company's recent payout rate. Offer B's bonus could be large or small, and the letter gives no anchor. Your next step is to ask Offer B how bonuses are set and what people in this role received in recent years, then compare the realistic total for each, along with hours, retirement match and the cost of living in each city.

The lesson: a higher base often wins, but not automatically, and a discretionary bonus is a question mark until you ask.

A script for asking about the bonus

You can say this on a call with the recruiter or hiring manager:

"Thanks, the base works as a starting point. Can you walk me through how the bonus is set for this role? Is there a target, as a percentage of base or a dollar range? And roughly how has it paid out for people at this level over the last two or three years, compared with the target?"

If they say it's fully discretionary:

"I understand it varies. To compare offers fairly, could you share a typical range for someone performing well in this role last year?"

If they won't give numbers, that's information too. You can then ask for more of the pay in base, or a signing bonus, so less depends on an unknown.

Asking for more on base

Base is the part you can count on, so it's worth pushing if the data supports you:

"Based on BLS data for financial and investment analysts in this metro and in this industry, roles like this usually pay between [25th percentile] and [75th percentile]. Given my experience with [specific skill or result], I was hoping for a base closer to [your number]. Is there flexibility there?"

Fill in your metro's percentiles from the BLS or O*NET tables, and pick a number you can explain. More scripts live in our negotiation section.

What the trend data says

BLS projects employment of financial analysts (both occupations combined) to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the 3% for all occupations, with about 29,500 openings a year on average. Many of those openings come from people retiring or switching fields, not only new roles. That points to steady demand, though it doesn't guarantee any particular pay outcome. A growing number of states and cities also require employers to include pay ranges in job postings, so check the posted range for any role you're considering; your state labor department lists the rules where you live. You can follow these changes in pay trends.

What to do next

• Look up your metro's 25th, median and 75th percentile for 13-2051 on the BLS or O*NET pages linked above, and write them down.
• Identify your employer's industry and compare the offer with that industry's median.
• Before you accept, ask how the bonus target is set and how it has actually paid out, using the script above.
• Put every part of the package into one total-pay comparison: base, expected bonus, retirement match, health costs and exam support.
• If you're early in your career, ask whether the employer sponsors FINRA licenses or supports CFA study, since those can widen your options later.

For more roles, browse salaries by role.