Pay, perks & perspectives: The 2023 Claims Salary Survey

A look at the pros

When it comes to the age of the respondents, the largest group by far were between 50 and 59 years old (38.8%), followed by 40 to 49-year-olds (19.9%) and 30 to 39-year-olds (9.9%). About a third (33.9%) said they function as adjusters, while 17.6% are managers and 10.9% are vice presidents or senior vice presidents. Smaller percentages of respondents said they serve in other positions, including specialist (6.7%), director/senior director (6.1%), analyst (2.4%), CEO/president (2.4%) and appraiser (1.8%).

Just over 38% of independent adjusters said there are more than 100 full-time employees at their company, and 25% reported being their company's only full-time employee. One-quarter of these respondents said their company's annual sales are over $50 million, while 19.4% said their company brings in $100,001 to $250,000, and 11.1% said their annual sales are between $250,001 and $500,000.

What's my line?

Last year we added a question to the Claims Salary Survey to determine the lines of business our respondents handle. In 2022, the top adjusted lines were personal property (55%) and commercial property (51%). These two lines were the most commonly adjusted by our respondents in 2023, as well, with 53.9% and 48.2% stating they adjust personal property and commercial property lines, respectively. Also similar to last year, nearly half (47.5%) of claims professionals said they handle complex claims.

Several lines saw noticeable growth from 2022 to 2023, with the largest increase being in personal auto (+10.6%), followed by personal lines (+9.1%), E&S/specialty claims (+7.8%), commercial auto (+7.3%) and commercial lines (+6.9%).

Benefit evolution

Like last year, the most common benefits offered by our respondents' employers were medical and dental insurance, but we saw a significant uptick in some of the less commonly offered benefits from 2022 to 2023. The largest increases were with respondents' companies offering mileage reimbursement (+8.4%), profit sharing (+7.8%) and a laptop computer (+7.3%). Just over 80% of this year's respondents said they receive medical insurance (+5.8% from 2022). While this increase shows promise, it is also significantly lower than the 98% of claims professionals who reported receiving medical benefits in 2019.

As an added benefit, about 93% of this year's respondents reported their company allows them to work from home. When those allowed to work remotely were asked how the number of hours they work from home has changed from the previous year, 73.2% said they had stayed nearly the same. About 15% said the hours they worked at home had decreased and 11.8% said they had increased.

Salary insights

For company claims professionals, there was a sharp jump from the minimum reported income of $12,100 in our 2021 survey to $42,000 in 2022, and things stayed pretty level in 2023 with a minimum reported salary of $40,000. While that fluctuation is minimal, there was a much larger fall when it comes to the maximum reported salary, which is likely due to variations in the positions of respondents year-to-year. In 2022, the maximum reported income was $801,000 – up from $320,000 in 2021. In 2023, the maximum reported salary was $450,000.

Just over 30% of independent adjusters reported they are compensated for the majority of their assignments with a time and expense fee schedule, while 21.4% are on a gross fee schedule and 7.1% make a daily rate. About 40% of respondents selected the "other" option, with the majority writing in that their compensation came in the form of salary, bonuses or a combination of the compensation options listed.

When asked if their income had decreased over the last 12 months due to limited/partial claim assignments versus handling full-coverage loss assignments, 19.5% reported that it had, while 68.3% said their income had not decreased because of this. On the other side, only about 9.8% of these independent adjusters said their income has increased due to this change in claims assignments.

Considering the current state of the economy and their knowledge of their companies, the majority of claims professionals seem confident in their level of job security, with 82.8% reporting they were either somewhat or very secure. Only 6.2% said they felt somewhat or very insecure about the longevity of their position.

Speaking of career longevity, 23.2% of respondents said they have worked in the insurance industry for more than 35 years. Only 1.4% have been in the industry for 1 to 5 years, and 9.2% have worked in insurance for 31 to 35 years.

Just under a third (31%) said they anticipate working 6 to 10 more years before retiring from insurance, 23.9% said they plan to work 1 to 5 more years and 2.1% said they never plan to retire from the insurance industry.

Do you recommend the career?

When asked how likely they were to recommend the claims profession to other people, 69% said they were either somewhat or very likely to recommend it, while 16.5% are either somewhat or very unlikely to recommend it to someone else.

The following are statements from respondents who said they would recommend the claims profession:

• "A good job for a multitude of majors out of college with the ability to travel and rise in the ranks to a more specialized or managerial role."
• "It can be a good career. There is some stability and opportunity. The job is interesting. There is the opportunity to help people in a difficult time in their life."
• "It's hard work and you have to have tough skin but it's rewarding to help people who are in a time of need."

Statements from those who said they were unlikely to recommend the claims profession included:

• "Zero work-life balance. Expectations of the customer and the company are diametrically opposed and moving further apart. Cannot make both happy."
• "Lots of stress and the legal environment has changed significantly. People just aren't nice anymore. Plaintiff attorneys are downright rude and nasty – they didn't use to be except for the occasional outlier."
• "The job has become more difficult the last few years. Much more oversight, high volume of claims, a lot of time spent on mundane tasks to check the boxes for an audit. Little in the way of promotions, raises or bonuses."

Overall, it seems claims professionals are in the industry for the long haul (and glad to be there), even with the challenges presented by the current market. We will see in the coming years how the workforce and claims industry itself continue to evolve.

Related:

• A good day's work: The 2022 Claims Salary Survey
• In the shoes of another: The basics of subrogation
• The 2023 cyber year in review