By Andreas Pettersson, Founder, Leaders ADAPT
Search for a chief of staff salary and you get five confident numbers that do not agree.
One site says about $124,000. Another says $185,000. A survey says $168,000. A forum thread quotes a single offer and everyone argues about it.
They are not all wrong. They measure different things, from different people, under a title that means different jobs at different companies.
I pulled the public figures on September 26, 2026, from the sources that would load for me, and put them side by side with what each one actually counts. Then the part the salary sites cannot give you: how a CEO should set the number for their own hire.
Quick answer: Published US chief of staff salary figures range from an average base of $124,163 (Payscale, 2026) to a median total compensation of $185,519 (Levels.fyi, 2026). The Chief of Staff Network's 2025 survey reports a mean base salary of $167,954, up from $154,673 in 2024. The spread comes mostly from base versus total pay and from who is in each sample.
What is the average chief of staff salary?
Base salary is the fixed annual pay before bonus, profit sharing or equity; total compensation is base plus all of those variable elements.
Keep that distinction in view when you compare chief of staff compensation. It explains most of the gap between the numbers below.
| Source (year) | What it measures | Figure | Notes on the sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payscale (2026, updated July 14) | Average base salary, US | $124,163 | 1,573 salary profiles; base 10th percentile $75k, median $124k, 90th percentile $196k |
| Chief of Staff Network (2025 report) | Mean base salary | $167,954 | Annual survey of chiefs of staff; median base about $160K |
| Levels.fyi (2026) | Median total compensation, US | $185,519 | US data; average $204,380 |
| Glassdoor (2026) | Median total pay by industry | $280,206 to $356,619 for the top five industries | Top five: Information Technology, Insurance, Telecommunications, Energy, Mining & Utilities, Healthcare |
| BLS OEWS (May 2025) | No chief of staff category | Nearest occupation, General and Operations Managers: median $105,770 | See the BLS section below |
Two sources I tried would not load. Indeed's salary page returned a Cloudflare verification wall, and Salary.com returned a human check. I have not used their figures, including the ones that appear in Google's snippets, because I could not see the page behind them.
How chief of staff pay has moved
The Chief of Staff Network has run its survey every year since 2019, so it is the best public series for the trend.
| Survey year | Mean base salary | Share earning above $200k |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $131,229 | 17% |
| 2024 | $154,673 | 20.59% |
| 2025 | $167,954 | 23.8% |
Source: Chief of Staff Network, Chief of Staff Salary Report 2025. In 2025, 15.2 percent of respondents reported base pay of $200k to $250k, 5.3 percent $250k to $300k, and 3.3 percent above $300k. Only 1.1 percent earned under $50k.
Why do chief of staff salary figures differ so much?
Four reasons, and they stack.
Base versus total. Payscale's headline is base salary. Levels.fyi's is total compensation, which includes bonus and equity. A $124,000 base and a $185,000 total can describe the same person.
Who reports. Levels.fyi's highest-paying employer for the title is a software company; its best-paid region is the New York City area, at a median of $225,000. The Chief of Staff Network surveys people inside its own network. Payscale draws on its own profile data. Each sample leans somewhere.
The title is polluted. When I opened ZipRecruiter's national chief of staff page, the listing it showed was for a veterinary "Area Chief of Staff".
In hospitals, chief of staff is a physician leadership role. Government and political chiefs of staff sit in the same searches. Aggregators that match on the title alone will blend these in.
The job is not one job. McKinsey describes two common entry points into the role, one five to ten years into a career and one ten to twenty years in, with different scope (McKinsey, 2024). A project-focused chief of staff and a true proxy for the CEO share a title and not much else.
So when a candidate quotes a number, ask which source and which measure. When you budget, pick the source whose sample looks most like your company.
How much does an entry-level chief of staff make?
Less than the headline averages suggest, and the gap to senior pay is wide.
- Payscale (2026): an entry level chief of staff (less than one year of experience) averages $80,648 in total compensation, based on 57 salaries. With one to four years of experience, the average is $101,452, based on 527 salaries.
- Chief of Staff Network (2025): entry-level roles average $91K in base salary. Executive-level chiefs of staff average $194K. Those with more than 20 years of experience average $260K.
That spread matches how I think about the hire. If your list of decisions for the role is short, you are hiring a junior operator and the pay should say so. If you want someone who can stand in for you in a room of vice presidents, you are hiring from the senior end. The chief of staff job description template starts with that decision list for exactly this reason.
Does industry, location or company size change chief of staff pay?
Yes, and industry moves it most in the public data.
Glassdoor's 2026 page lists the top-paying industries for the title by median total pay: Information Technology $356,619, Insurance $301,171, Telecommunications $287,201, Energy, Mining & Utilities $282,610 and Healthcare $280,206. Those are the top five, not the typical case.
On location, Levels.fyi puts the New York City area highest, at a median total compensation of $225,000.
On company size, the Chief of Staff Network says its research considered company stage and size, but the public summary of the 2025 report does not publish those figures, so I have none to give you here. That gap matters for a scaling company. A CEO of a smaller company should check each sample before assuming its average applies unchanged.
What does BLS say about chief of staff pay?
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has no chief of staff occupation, so it cannot give a direct figure. The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program (OEWS) covers about 830 occupations, and a corporate chief of staff falls somewhere between two of them.
| BLS OEWS, May 2025, national | Employment | Median | Mean | 10th to 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General and Operations Managers (11-1021) | 3,503,020 | $105,770 | $134,940 | $50,090 to $253,390 |
| Chief Executives (11-1011) | 204,350 | $213,990 | $269,630 | $75,700 to $507,730 |
Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates, retrieved through the BLS public data API on September 26, 2026.
Read these as a floor and a ceiling, not as chief of staff pay. General and operations managers include many roles far from the executive office. Chief executives are the principals, not their staff. The private surveys above sit between the two medians, which is about where you would expect the role to land.
Do chiefs of staff get a bonus or equity?
A chief of staff bonus is common. A published equity figure is not.
Payscale's 2026 data shows bonuses of $2k to $41k and profit sharing of $204 to $45k for the title, with total pay of $74k to $211k. The Chief of Staff Network summary reports base salary, not bonus or equity. None of the public pages I could load gives an equity figure for the role, and I have not used the numbers quoted in forum threads.
How I would structure it: keep the base honest for the level, and put the upside in variable pay tied to the company's results. The line I give clients about a strong number two: "Do earning on target and profit sharing when you hit a certain threshold. You don't have to increase his base; you increase his total earning on targets."
How should a CEO set a chief of staff salary?
Start with the market data above, then adjust for three things only you know.
- Price the role for where the company needs to be two quarters out. Not for current volume. If you anchor to a slow quarter, you will not have a defensible offer for the person who is supposed to help you out of it.
- Match the level to the decision list. A short list is a junior role. A long list with real authority is a senior one. I use the same logic for other operating hires: a VP title is for someone you already plan to move into the C-suite, a senior director title is for someone who should stay hands-on and prove it first.
- Reward before the ask. "Don't wait to reward him too late, because then the value goes out. Reward him before he asks for it." A spot bonus after the first big project lands costs little and says a lot.
And one reframe, because the salary number can scare a CEO out of the hire: don't look at the yearly salary. Look at it as an investment in the person. My opportunity cost, as I put it to a client once, "is not 200 or 300 thousand dollars, it's the cost of hiring someone for six weeks." Within six weeks you will know.
If you are still deciding whether the role is right at all, the chief of staff guide covers what the job does and the order of operations before you hire. The playbook on founder-to-CEO delegation and systems covers the delegation work that should come first.
Chief of staff salary FAQ
What is the average chief of staff salary in the US?
Published averages differ by source and by measure, base or total. Payscale reports an average base salary of $124,163 (2026, 1,573 profiles), while the Chief of Staff Network's 2025 survey reports a mean base of $167,954 and a median of about $160,000. Levels.fyi reports a median total compensation of $185,519 (2026), which includes bonus and equity. Base and total pay should not be compared directly.
Is a chief of staff well paid?
Compared with general management pay, yes. The Chief of Staff Network's 2025 survey found 23.8 percent of respondents earned a base salary above $200,000, and executive-level chiefs of staff averaged $194,000. For comparison, the BLS May 2025 median for general and operations managers was $105,770. Pay varies widely with seniority, industry and location.
How much does an entry-level chief of staff make?
Payscale's 2026 data puts average total compensation at $80,648 for chiefs of staff with less than one year of experience and $101,452 for those with one to four years. The Chief of Staff Network's 2025 survey reports an average entry-level base salary of $91,000. Senior and long-tenured chiefs of staff earn substantially more, averaging $260,000 in the Network's data at 20+ years.
Does BLS track chief of staff salaries?
No. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has no chief of staff occupation in its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. The nearest categories are General and Operations Managers, with a May 2025 national median of $105,770, and Chief Executives, with a median of $213,990. Private surveys of chiefs of staff generally fall between those two figures.
Which industries pay chiefs of staff the most?
Glassdoor's 2026 data lists Information Technology as the top-paying industry for the title, at a median total pay of $356,619, followed by Insurance at $301,171, Telecommunications at $287,201, Energy, Mining & Utilities at $282,610 and Healthcare at $280,206. These are the top five industries on the page, not typical pay for the role across all employers.
Do chiefs of staff get bonuses?
Often. Payscale's 2026 data shows chief of staff bonuses ranging from about $2,000 to $41,000 and profit sharing from about $200 to $45,000, with total pay between $74,000 and $211,000. None of the public salary pages reviewed for this article publishes an equity figure for the role; equity terms are set company by company and depend on stage and seniority.
The number is the easy part
The salary is the one figure in this hire you can look up. The harder numbers are the ones only you can write: how many hours a week come back to you, which decisions leave your desk, and what the company does with the time you get back.
Set those first. The chief of staff salary follows from them, and a candidate can see what the job really is before the pay conversation starts.
Making the hire pay for itself
A chief of staff pays back when the CEO actually changes what they do. That is the work in my 1:1 CEO strategic advisory: week one is leadership assessments and preparation, weeks two and three are a full-day intensive at your location to decide what leaves your desk and at what level, and weekly sessions after that keep the hire and your own week on the same plan.
I was one of Canon's youngest CEOs and built teams across Europe, Japan and the US. If you are also comparing a hire with outside help, the page on what executive coaching costs is a related read. Either way, write the decision list before you write the offer.
