"Tier 1" contractors - compensation/salary

[nickleplatedbrass]

How much do "Tier 1" contractors make? I'm talking about contractors with credentials ie. ex SEAL, Ranger, Marine, Spec Ops trained etc plus experience.

Working a post like those "security guards" in the movie 13 Hours did. How much do they paid?

[Bansh88]

A buddy of mine did 7 months in Afghanistan. I think he made $90k. Unless it was 9 months for $70k.

[alfred1222]

Black water paid $600 per mission day, $150 per off day. Tax free of course

[junior40er]

ive made $195K doing a year straight but in a different role.

[Ronin2]

[gorn5150]

My son was offered around $200k a year by one of the contractor companies to work as a sniper. That was a couple of years ago though.

[hikingwithguns]

Tier 1 would be delta and team six, cag and devgru or whatever the heck they are calling themselves these days.

[drifts1]

I thougth tier 1 was anybody with a BCM, DD, Noveske......???

[IVC]

"Tier 1 Operators" are elusive guys with secret names such as "Gecko45."

[BisDak]

I thougth tier 1 was anybody with a BCM, DD, Noveske......???

Not so.

PSA or Del-Ton will give you credentials. In fact, you'll see a lot of them on the local range these days.


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[ruchik]

I was under the impression that the Tier system referred to supply chain and logistics. In some cases, special operations units could be designated as Tier 3; it has nothing to do with their skills, purely supply chain?

[shooting4life]

All my checks for when I tier 1 operate are deposited direct into 13 different cayman island accounts which are then auto transferred to 19 different Swiss bank accounts, the money is then converted in yen and transferred back to 3 different Cayman island accounts and converted to hit coin . My deposit receipts are mailed through 4 po box forwarding services and ultimately picked up and transported by 2 bums who leave said deposit receipts at one of 7 blind drops located throughout Northern California for opsec purposes. I also require all deposit receipts to be printed on water saluable paper that is either fde (soon to be discontinued, 2014- 2015 approved tier 1 paper color) or hk grey (2015-2016 tier 1 paper color). 2016-2017 tier 1 paper color will either be burnt bronze or titanium, still in testing phase.

I've already said too much.

[Abu Riyah]

First of all, these individuals are not actually contractors; they are civilian employees of contractors. The actual government contractors are the companies that hire people to fill positions. A bit nitpicky, maybe, but that's a fact that many people fail to realize. It is common to call us "contractors" but we are actually just employees of contractor companies like Mantech, L-3, BAE, etc.

Salaries depend more on the specific contract and position than the individual's background, though most jobs do require specific training, experience, and security clearance level. Salaries were pretty high early on during both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but generally dropped down as the years passed by.

My particular intel specialty, document & media exploitation, has been pretty stable with salaries hovering right around $200K for the past 5-6 years in both theaters. Intel analysts and linguist/interpreters have seen a big drop in their salaries, maybe about 50% due to high supply and lessening demand.

Specifically regarding former/retired SPECOPS guys, their salaries can range widely. I have heard of the $600-700 per day rates, but those are usually short term deployments ranging from 1-6 months at a time. I have one buddy (28-year retired green beret) that was making $386K doing COIN (counterinsurgency) advising in Afghanistan up until mid-2015. His company only hires former SOF and SEALs and all the guys know each other from within their community. This particular job was pretty low key with his team going outside the wire maybe 2-3 days a week to meet with Afghan police and military. He is now in Iraq doing actual security work (the three people that were just kidnapped are some of his translators) and he is only making about $100K despite the much higher risk level. I know a couple of younger guys doing similar work in Iraq, but with only a 4-8 year Army Infantry background (not SPECOPS), and they are making the same money as the 28-year retired-SOF vet. Operator creds do not guarantee a high salary, though they definitely do help in getting deployed positions.

Finally, don't believe anyone that tells you that the money we make overseas is tax free. Basically, the first $100K is tax-free (federal) as long as you are outside the USA for 330 days out of a 365-day period, after that, it is taxed normally. For California state taxes, you basically have to be outside of the state 18 months and then that "non-CA sourced income" is 100% tax-free. Those short-term deployments give you zero tax benefits like the year+ ones do. Personally, I always shoot for the 18-month mark before coming home for a break.

Sorry if I strayed a bit off of the original topic, but it made sense to paint the bigger picture to put it in context.

[Barbarosa]

I hope compensation also includes really good medical, and a hefty life insurance policy.

[Abu Riyah]

I hope compensation also includes really good medical, and a hefty life insurance policy.

Depends on the company and what you negotiate before signing on. My first deployment included paid Cigna International medical insurance and a $700K life insurance policy with no war-zone exclusion. My last one offered me Blue Cross of Virginia at $700/month which I declined for a small bump in salary.

Salary, insurance, vacation, bonuses....these are all negotiable at the individual level when hiring on with a company.