Support Staff Show Declining Trend in Salary Increases but Satisfaction Over Total Comp Improves

Insurance producers on average made more money in 2025, but agency owners and support staff reported declining total income and salary adjustments last year. Despite the slower pace in pay, satisfaction with compensation overall held steady, according to the latest Agency Salary Survey results, published annually by Insurance Journal.

Changes in overall salary and total income rose for producer/sales positions, the survey revealed, but that wasn’t the case for everyone. Management/agency owners/principals and support staff/CSR/account executive positions both saw decreases in total income change from 2024 to 2025. (See chart on page 21.)

Surprisingly, satisfaction with compensation rose for support staff/CSR/account exec roles despite the declining pace of reported salary and total income changes, according to the survey’s results.

Satisfaction with compensation rose in this year’s survey to an average of 3.37 (2025) from 3.27 (2024) in last year’s survey. This is an increase in the average satisfaction index scores of 2023 (3.36) but still below the higher satisfaction scores in 2022 (3.61) and 2021 (3.41). (Note: The Agency Compensation Satisfaction Index is based on a scale of 1-to-5 where “5” equals “most satisfied.” See Agency Compensation Satisfaction Index chart, page 21.):

• Management/agency owners/agency principals reported a compensation satisfaction score of 3.75 in 2025, just slightly lower than 2024’s score of 3.76.
• Producers/sales reported satisfaction of 3.20 in 2025, up from 2.96 in 2024.
• Support staff/CSR/account executives reported a satisfaction score of 3.15 in 2025, up from 3.08 in 2024.

The score for overall satisfaction was higher when agencies offered employee benefits–both hard benefits (such as group health, life/disability, dental, profit sharing, 401(k) plans, ESOPs, IRAs, and flexible savings accounts) and soft benefits (such as child care/day care, education reimbursement, pet insurance, and paid family leave). (See Employee Benefit Satisfaction Index, page 24.)

Employee benefit satisfaction ranked highest when agencies offered added benefits, such as child care/day care (3.92), pensions (3.81), profit sharing and education reimbursement (both 3.79), paid family leave (3.64), and IRAs (3.61). The survey found that in nearly all employee benefit categories queried, employee satisfaction with overall compensation rose when those benefits were offered. The exceptions this year were slight declines in satisfaction when offered ESOPs, stock options, and even pet insurance, perhaps due to limited options of this benefit among survey respondents.

As noted, the survey revealed an upward trend in total compensation for producers/sales positions this year and a slight downward trend for the two other categories. Producers/sales positions saw a 5% jump in total compensation, according to this year’s survey.

The 2026 Agency Salary Survey, based on nearly 500 responses nationwide, revealed that total income changes, which include salary plus additional compensation such as profit sharing, bonuses, and other income, were:

• Agency owners, principals, and management total income increased 16.8% for 2025, compared to a 17.9% increase in total income in 2024.
• Producers/sales total income increased 25.3% in 2025, compared to a 20.8% increase in 2024.
• Agency support staff total income showed a 6.9% increase for 2025, compared to a 11.3% increase for 2024.

Salaries only (excluding bonus and incentive income), also rose again in 2025 for producer/sales roles but declined for management/owners and support staff, according to this year’s survey results:

• Salaries for agency owners, principals, and management rose 15.6% in 2025, compared to 15.8% in 2024.
• Producers/sales reported average increases in salary of 21.0% in 2025, compared to 17.6% in 2024.
• Salaries for agency support staff rose 7.4% in 2025, compared to 11.0% in 2024.

Insurance Journal’s Agency Salary Survey collected about 500 responses from agency owners and employees nationwide via an online survey in January 2026. Paul Osbourne, senior analyst at Demotech Inc., assisted with analysis of this year’s survey results. For more information, contact Andrea Wells at: awells@insurancejournal.com.