Is the growing compliance workload reflected in pay?
Compliance professionals’ salaries remain largely unchanged from the previous financial year, with only compliance heads enjoying a pay rise.
Money Management recently delved into the burnout risk of compliance professionals in financial services, as higher workloads and the ever-changing regulation placed heavy pressure on existing staff.
“There’s no end; regulatory change just keeps coming. What I’m finding is teams are not upping their resourcing and bringing in consultants or temporary contract workers to alleviate some of that stress. You almost don’t have time to breathe before the next thing comes up, so people are just burnt out,” said Amanda Chisholm, director of legal, risk and compliance at Kaizen Recruitment, last month.
She especially observed this within executive roles, including compliance heads and general managers, who were stretched too thin with all-encompassing changes to financial regulation.
A recent report by BT found that staff retention and staff recruitment were among the biggest challenges facing financial advice firms. Some 90 per cent also noted legislative or compliance change as their second-biggest challenge overall.
Meanwhile, a recent salary guide produced by recruitment agency Hays, surveying over 15,000 professionals across Australia and New Zealand, uncovered the average salaries for compliance professionals in the 2024–25 financial year.
When compared to the average figures from the 2023–24 financial year, only heads of compliance in four states saw a rise in their salaries. Meanwhile, managers and senior managers’ pay generally stayed the same across the board.
The report found there was a small gap between the pay of managers and senior managers, but a much larger jump when an individual progressed to head of compliance. In Sydney, which had the highest wage, a senior compliance manager could see a jump of as much as $140,000 in the new position, rising from a maximum of $210,000 to $350,000.
This compared to a jump of $65,000 in Sydney for the promotion from manager to senior manager.
Hays’ FY24 salary guide previously identified regulatory compliance managers as one of the top five positions employers were looking to fill in the financial services industry.
Looking at head of compliance positions across the country, four out of the eight states and territories enjoyed a noticeable salary increase. The average pay for compliance heads in South Australia saw the largest jump with a $30,000 rise.
Head of compliance
| State | Last year (FY23–24) | This year (FY24–25) |
| NSW | $260,000 | $260,000 |
| VIC | $250,000 | $250,000 |
| QLD | $225,000 | $225,000 |
| WA | $200,000 | $200,000 |
| SA | $130,000 | $160,000 |
| ACT | $135,000 | $150,000 |
| TAS | $125,000 | $140,000 |
| NT | $122,000 | $130,000 |
For senior compliance managers, the majority of states and territories saw no change in their annual earnings. Tasmania and Northern Territory were the only two to see a rise, while Queensland’s average fell slightly.
Senior compliance manager
| State | Last year (FY23–24) | This year (FY24–25) |
| NSW | $180,000 | $180,000 |
| VIC | $170,000 | $170,000 |
| QLD | $173,000 | $170,000 |
| WA | $155,000 | $155,000 |
| ACT | $125,000 | $125,000 |
| SA | $120,000 | $120,000 |
| TAS | $115,000 | $120,000 |
| NT | $112,000 | $120,000 |
Three states and territories – Queensland, South Australia and Northern Territory – saw a minor salary rise for managers in compliance, while the rest remained unchanged.
Compliance manager
| State | Last year (FY23–24) | This year (FY24–25) |
| VIC | $140,000 | $140,000 |
| NSW | $130,000 | $130,000 |
| QLD | $128,000 | $130,000 |
| WA | $120,000 | $120,000 |
| ACT | $110,000 | $110,000 |
| SA | $95,000 | $100,000 |
| TAS | $95,000 | $95,000 |
| NT | $92,000 | $95,000 |
Money Management also explored the average salaries for financial planners, senior financial planners, associate advisers and paraplanners, discovering little to no rise in pay.
AUTHOR
Jasmine Siljic
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