The Actuarial Pay Index

Actuary salary in Charlotte

What actuarial roles pay in Charlotte in 2026: student, ASA and FSA base salary by experience and sector, adjusted for Charlotte, plus the local market.

Median base salary, FSA with 6 to 9 years, life & annuity, Charlotte

$175k

Updated 6 October 2026 in the CTS Actuarial Pay Index.

Actuary base salary in Charlotte by experience

At life and annuity insurers, with the Charlotte adjustment of 4% below national.

Fellows (FSA)

3 to 5 years: $139k median base, typically $121k to $159k
6 to 9 years: $175k median base, typically $152k to $200k
10 to 14 years: $200k median base, typically $173k to $228k
15+ years: $228k median base, typically $197k to $260k

Associates (ASA)

3 to 5 years: $120k median base, typically $108k to $132k
6 to 9 years: $143k median base, typically $128k to $156k
10 to 14 years: $159k median base, typically $142k to $174k
15+ years: $178k median base, typically $158k to $194k

Students

0 to 2 years: $95k median base, typically $84k to $108k
3 to 5 years: $108k median base, typically $96k to $121k
6 to 9 years: $120k median base, typically $107k to $135k
10 to 14 years: $129k median base, typically $115k to $146k

Charlotte by sector

For a Fellow with 6 to 9 years:

Life & annuity insurers: $175k median base
Reinsurers: $186k median base
Consulting firms: $180k median base
Health insurers: $180k median base
P&C insurers (FCAS): $176k median base

How the Charlotte adjustment works

Employers that hire actuaries across the US set separate pay ranges for the same role in different locations. None of them put Charlotte in the higher-cost zone alongside New York City, so the index treats it as standard. Standard sits a little below the national figure, because the national figure also includes higher-paying cities such as New York, so the adjustment for Charlotte is 4% below national. Every city in the standard zone shows the same figures in the index.

The local market

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics counts about 280 actuaries in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC area, with a median wage of $128,730, against $130,000 nationally, and the middle half earning between $99,240 and $159,330 (May 2025).

Those figures cover every actuary at every level, so they reflect the local mix of senior and junior roles as well as pay. That is why they differ from the like-for-like figures above.

Open Charlotte in the Actuarial Pay Index → You can switch market, experience and sector, and unlock where your own salary sits and what it takes to move.

How these figures are built

The Actuarial Pay Index is our view of what actuarial roles pay, built from the offers, counteroffers and pay conversations in our own search work, the pay ranges in the actuarial roles advertised over the last 12 months, and government wage data. Every figure is reviewed by our team against what we see in the market. Figures are base salary for new hires, before any bonus; lower and upper figures are the lower and upper quartiles. Location adjustments use the pay differences employers set for the same role in different locations. Bonus targets come from the offers we see. No individual salaries are ever published. How the index is built.