Paying It Safe

“The safety industry today is at a crossroads. On one hand, we have better tools, technology and data than ever before to prevent injuries and protect workers. On the other hand, we face real challenges in how safety is prioritized, perceived and regulated.”

“Exciting developments in our profession include adapting to utilizing AI and other leading-edge technologies to improve efficiency and service to our industries.”

“This profession sounded amazing, but in reality companies are cheap, only care about production, and dirty.”

“I am lucky to be working at the company that I work for. They truly embrace safety and value the safety of their colleagues over production.”

“The EHS regulatory environment needs to be more cost-effective and make sense for manufacturing and industry. Environmental social justice groups are a waste of time, money and resources.”

“Salaries on job postings seem to match the salaries from 10 years ago. This is making it harder to attract and keep high-potential employees, causing the profession to settle for low-tier performers.”

“My job is very fulfilling and more of a calling than a profession.”

—comments submitted by respondents to the 2025 National Safety and Salary Survey

The results are in from EHS Today’s 2025 National Safety and Salary Survey, so rather than burying the lead let’s cut to the chase: The average salary for a safety professional rose 12% over the past year. That’s quite a bit higher than the typical raise throughout the US economy in 2025, so it could be taken as a sign that occupational health and safety has taken on a more prominent role in the workplace. And perhaps that’s true, but the anecdotal comments passed on by the 662 respondents to the survey tell a somewhat different story.

When asked to name one thing they would like to change about their job, 9% of those who answered said they’d want a higher salary, and 13% said they’d like more help. That continues a theme we’ve heard time and again in our annual surveys, the notion that safety professionals are overworked and underpaid.

Indeed, at many companies the head of safety is, in fact, a manager without a staff, as 43% of survey respondents said they do not have any direct reports. That’s a crucial point when you consider how many areas of the company a typical safety professional is responsible for. According to the survey, at least half indicated they’re responsible for the following: safety (95%), occupational health (72%), emergency management (67%), risk management (67%), ergonomics (63%), industrial hygiene (59%), fire protection (58%), and environmental compliance/ESG (57%). 

With all that on their plates, though, safety professionals aren’t likely to see much help coming any time soon: two-thirds (67%) of respondents said their company’s budget for EHS has stayed the same in 2025 as it was in 2024; only 21% saw an increase, and 12% actually saw the budget go down.

Based on all the numbers we’ve crunched to compile the survey results, we can reveal what a typical (though mythical) safety leader looks like: a white male in his 50s, who lives in the Midwest, works in a manufacturing plant or facility, has more than 20 years of experience in the EHS field, earns $118,697, and did not receive a bonus last year.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

The term “safety leader” is something of a misnomer since few if any safety professionals actually have that as their title. Manager, supervisor, director, vice president—these are more likely to appear on a safety professional’s business card or LinkedIn page. Based on our survey results, the largest group of respondents (31%) consider themselves an EHS manager/supervisor, and earn an average salary of $111,664. The second largest group are EHS professionals (25% of respondents), who earn $102,154, followed by EHS directors/VPs (18%), who earn $161,036.

The majority of safety professionals work in manufacturing, either light manufacturing industries (e.g., apparel, consumer electronics) or heavy manufacturing (e.g., automotive, aerospace), which together account for 28% of all respondents. Light manufacturing (16%) salaries average $98,960, while heavy manufacturing (12%) salaries average $111,740. In between those two industries, however, are construction safety professionals, who make up 14% of the total and average $109,139.

It stands to reason, then, that the largest percentage of safety professionals work at a manufacturing plant or facility (35%), with another 9% working at a worksite or construction site. However, 30% work in a corporate office, and 8% work in a government office or lab. So a safety professional is just as likely to be where production or construction work is being done as they are in an office setting.

CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

When it comes to salaries for safety professionals, where you live can oftentimes play a large factor in how well you’re compensated, and it could also be reflected in how much in demand safety professionals are in that region. For instance, the least populated area of the country—the mountain region—has the largest average salary for safety leaders: $134,020. However, before you jump to conclusions and start packing your hiking gear to move out west, we should point out the most densely populated area—the Middle Atlantic—has the second-largest average salary, at $131,020.

By far the largest number of safety professionals live in the North Central region, aka the Midwest, accounting for 30% of the total. However, that’s also the area with the lowest average salary in the US, at $110,962.

SAFETY SMARTS

Safety professionals aren’t by nature early-adopters of the latest technologies, so it’s not surprising that the most frequently adopted safety tech are safety management systems (56%), which are not only a tried-and-true solution but are heavily promoted by OSHA; the agency, in fact, has established an SMS for its own federal employees.

The only other technology that at least half the respondents said they’re using is e-learning/micro-learning, which is primarily used for training purposes.

Interestingly, while most of the tech usage results closely mirrored the same usage percentages from a year ago, one tech doubled in usage—artificial intelligence (AI), which jumped from 12% in 2024 to 24% in 2025. When it comes to identifying exactly how AI can help improve safety outcomes, the jury is still out on whether that’ll be on the predictive or the prescriptive side, but it’s clear that the frequent hype over AI has resulted in one out of four safety professionals giving the technology a try.

WIDENING GAPS

Every year we also take a look at the gender gap, to see if anything has changed since the previous survey. The answer is yes, but not in a good way: in 2024, males made up 67% of the safety profession vs. 31% females (3% preferred not to say). This year, 71% of the respondents were male, and 28% female (1% preferred not to say). In terms of average salaries, males outearned females by $10,649. In 2024, the difference was $5,472, so the salary gap almost doubled over the past year.

Not much changed over the past year when it comes to ethnic diversity, either. This year, just like last year, 81% of all respondents described themselves as Whites/Caucasians, and the average salary for this group was $121,066. The next-largest group—Hispanic/Latino—accounts for 7% (down from 8% in 2024), with an average salary of $99,241, a difference of more than $20,000 from their White counterparts.

TAKE THIS JOB AND LOVE IT

As noted above, the largest percentage of survey respondents have more than 20 years of experience in the EHS field (42%). In fact, 71% have more than 10 years of experience, which suggests that safety leaders tend to remain in the EHS profession for most if not all of their careers. And the survey results bear that out. When asked if they are satisfied with their choice of EHS as a career path, 45% said they are very satisfied (an increase of 4% from last year’s survey), and another 37% said they are satisfied, for a total of 82% on the satisfaction-meter. Only 2% said they are unsatisfied, and only one respondent to the survey said they’re very unsatisfied.

The satisfaction-meter is nearly as strong when asked how satisfied they are with their current job. Despite all the challenges and concerns raised in their comments, respondents overall are quite comfortable with their situations, with 33% saying they are very satisfied with their current job (a jump of 8% from last year’s survey), and another 45% are satisfied, for a satisfaction factor of 78%. The “unsatisfieds” (6%) and “very unsatisfieds” (2%) added up to 8%, a slight drop from last year’s 9%.

That’s not to say that everybody is perfectly content with their jobs or where the safety profession stands at the moment, especially in an era where seemingly every aspect of our daily work lives is being politicized. When we asked if they thought the Trump administration would have a positive effect on workplace safety, 42% of respondents said no, 26% said yes, and 32% said they didn’t know. In an area characterized by polarizing uncertainty, that’s pretty close to an even split between those discouraged, those encouraged and those just plain baffled by what’s going on in Washington. But maybe that’s always the case.

In any event, our thanks to all the safety professionals who took the time to answer the survey and offer us their candid commentary. You can go to ehstoday.com to find even more charts and comments, as this article offers just a sampling from the full survey results. And thank you to each and every one of you for the often unheralded but always fantastic job you do to keep all of us safe. We appreciate you!

THE REST OF THE STORY

You can find more salary information and insights from the 2025 National Safety and Salary Survey in this slideshow:

Taking the Pulse of the Safety Profession