Your Pay: The Average Salary of Contractors in Combat Zones

Many of the positions needed in combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan directly support military operations. The need for contractors with valid security clearances is high, and workers with security clearances may earn the highest salaries in the private sector. The average salary for private contractors is $93,961 as of December 2012. The average private government contractor with a security clearance earns about $20,000 more each year than a government employee with the same clearance.

The average annual salary for defense contractors is about $84,000 as of January 2013, according to sources. These jobs represent positions where security clearances are both necessary as well but unneeded. In our Contractors Directory, we index contractors overseas as well as contractors outside of the combat zones in places like Africa & Europe where contractors are used domestically to help build military infrastructures, such as information technology contract staff and other base support personnel.

Contractors in Iraq

As of  2010, there were nearly an equal number of Department of Defense contractors as uniformed military personnel in Iraq, with 95,461 contractors and 95,900 troops, according to the Congressional Research Service. The number of contractors and troops has remained in relative parity since 2007. Of the Defense Department contractors in Iraq in 2010, 24,719 were American citizens.

Contractors in Afghanistan

The Department of Defense employs more civilian contractors than military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, according to the Congressional Research Service, with 112,092 contractors supporting 79,100 uniformed soldiers. The percentage of contractors present in the conflict, 69 percent of the Department of Defense's workforce, is the highest proportion of civilian labor in an armed conflict in the United States' history.