---
title: "Compliance Officer"
description: "Examine, evaluate, and investigate eligibility for or conformity with laws and regulations governing contract compliance of licenses and permits, and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-officer"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Compliance Officer

**Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-1041 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-1041.00

Examine, evaluate, and investigate eligibility for or conformity with laws and regulations governing contract compliance of licenses and permits, and perform other compliance and enforcement inspection and analysis activities not classified elsewhere.

Also advertised as: Driver Examiner; Driver License Agent; Driver License Examiner; Examiner; License Examiner; License Registration Examiner; Licensing Analyst; Motor Vehicle Clerk.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $80,730 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $38.81/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $48,220 to $133,720, with the middle half between $61,280 and $109,010
- **Total US employment:** 417,070
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 33,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 30/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 417,070 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $48,220 |
| 25th | $61,280 |
| 50th (median) | $80,730 |
| 75th | $109,010 |
| 90th | $133,720 |
| Mean (average) | $88,400 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $111,030 | $101,027 | 4,380 |
| MA | $102,060 | $96,504 | 13,190 |
| NJ | $100,000 | $91,908 | 13,310 |
| CA | $96,980 | $87,590 | 49,880 |
| CT | $91,810 | $88,611 | 3,610 |
| DE | $91,050 | $91,225 | 2,150 |
| VT | $90,420 | $92,305 | 1,960 |
| NY | $90,080 | $83,468 | 23,500 |
| WA | $88,790 | $82,971 | 11,130 |
| RI | $87,620 | $85,667 | 970 |
| MN | $85,920 | $87,121 | 6,140 |
| PA | $85,580 | $87,710 | 19,810 |
| MD | $84,720 | $80,717 | 10,100 |
| ME | $83,740 | $86,285 | 1,790 |
| OR | $82,990 | $80,291 | 5,360 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-officer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/compliance-officer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 418,000 in the 2024–2034 base year to 430,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 12,300 jobs, or +3.0%. About as fast as average: 3.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 33,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Warn violators of infractions or penalties.
- Advise licensees or other individuals or groups concerning licensing, permit, or passport regulations.
- Evaluate applications, records, or documents to gather information about eligibility or liability issues.
- Report law or regulation violations to appropriate boards or agencies.
- Confer with or interview officials, technical or professional specialists, or applicants to obtain information or to clarify facts relevant to licensing decisions.
- Prepare reports of activities, evaluations, recommendations, or decisions.
- Identify compliance issues that require follow-up or investigation.
- Keep informed regarding pending industry changes, trends, or best practices.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Law and Government — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Enterprising (E), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.33 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.08 |
| I — Investigative | 3.07 |
| S — Social | 2.97 |
| R — Realistic | 2.51 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 85.6 |
| ISTJ | 79.6 |
| ISFJ | 77.5 |
| ESFJ | 76.7 |
| ENTJ | 60.9 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Compliance Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-manager) — median $141,900
- [Eligibility Interviewer, Government Programs](https://nuecareer.com/careers/eligibility-interviewer-government-programs) — median $54,210
- [Government Property Inspector and Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/government-property-inspector-and-investigator) — median $80,730
- [Environmental Compliance Inspector](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-compliance-inspector) — median $80,730
- [Regulatory Affairs Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/regulatory-affairs-specialist) — median $80,730
- [Paralegal](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paralegal) — median $62,890
- [Claims Adjuster, Examiner, and Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/claims-adjuster-examiner-and-investigator) — median $78,000
- [Equal Opportunity Representative and Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/equal-opportunity-representative-and-officer) — median $80,730
- [Coroner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/coroner) — median $80,730
- [Customs Broker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/customs-broker) — median $80,730

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/compliance-officer