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March 02, 2021 at 11:06 AM
What You Need to Know
- BDO has data on 1,900 health insurance sales positions.
- The numbers can show you where the money is.
- The money may give everyone else ideas about what's hot.
Health insurance sales reps who handle big, national accounts may earn more than twice as much as reps who work with individuals and families.
Analysts at BDO USA LLP have published data supporting that conclusion in a summary of results from a survey of health insurance organizations with about 1,900 sales-related positions.
BDO USA — an arm of BDO International, a large, Chicago-based accounting firm — is not saying much about the survey sample. It’s not clear how well the participants reflect pay scales at all U.S. health insurance sales organizations.
At the organizations that did participate, the median level of total 2020 cash compensation was $241,270 for senior sales reps who were working with national accounts.
Here’s what median 2020 total cash compensation looked like for some other types of senior health insurance sales reps:
- Large Group: $177,719
- Small Group: $153,676
- Medicare Plans: $123,243
- Individual Health: $101,457
BDO organizes the health insurance sales comp surveys, and other compensation surveys, to support its compensation consulting practice. The compensation consulting team helps employers set pay and design incentive compensation programs.
The Seniority Differential
The BDO survey team found that senior sales reps did much better in 2020 than junior reps at increasing their pay.
The team found, for example, that the median total amount of cash compensation earned by all types of junior health insurance sales reps fell 1% between 2019 and 2020.
