CIES Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis

What We Can and Cannot Say About CIES Salary

Most salary guides open with a confident number and a tidy range. We are not going to do that here, because the evidence does not support it. The credential covered on this page is the Council-certified Indoor Environmental Supervisor, issued by the American Council for Accredited Certification (ACAC) through its CIES Certification Board. It is a narrow, specialist credential, and the public record does not include a reliable salary survey specific to ACAC CIES holders. It also does not include any verified causal earnings premium, meaning there is no trustworthy data showing that holding CIES raises pay by a particular amount.

That matters because several other credentials share the same acronym and are far more widely surveyed. Pay figures for those programs say nothing about this one. Borrowing them would be misleading, so this guide sticks to what can be reasoned from the structure of the credential itself: what it certifies, who it is aimed at, what it costs to earn, and which kinds of jobs it plausibly supports.

If you want the broader context on whether the credential justifies the effort, our companion piece Is the CIES Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 walks through the decision from a cost-and-benefit angle. This article focuses on the earnings side and on how to estimate it for your own situation.

Where CIES Holders Work and Who Pays Them

Compensation follows employer type more than it follows any single certificate. CIES is built around supervising remediation work in the indoor environment, so its natural home is the contracting and consulting ecosystem around hazardous-material abatement and remediation. Typical employer categories include:

• Abatement and remediation contractors that perform asbestos, lead, mold and hazardous-material work and need supervisors who can plan, direct and document jobs.
• Environmental and industrial hygiene consulting firms that scope projects, write work plans and oversee contractor performance.
• Facility owners and operators such as institutions, property managers and industrial sites that keep in-house staff responsible for indoor environmental quality and regulatory compliance.
• Restoration companies that handle post-loss cleanup involving microbial growth, chemical residues or legacy materials in older buildings.

Each of these pays differently, and regional labor markets, union presence, project volume and company size all swing the numbers more than a certificate does. For a closer look at the job landscape itself, see our overview of CIES jobs.

What Actually Moves Pay in Indoor Environmental Remediation

Because no CIES-specific earnings data exists, the useful question becomes: which factors typically separate higher-paid supervisors from lower-paid ones in this field? Based on how the work is structured, these are the levers worth examining.

Scope of responsibility

A supervisor who can run an asbestos job, a lead job and a mixed-hazard job commands more flexibility than one limited to a single discipline. CIES is explicitly multi-discipline. The eligibility rules require documented experience in at least three of five areas, which is a built-in signal of breadth.

Regulatory fluency

Remediation supervision is regulation-heavy. The ACAC preparation references include 40 CFR 763, 40 CFR 61 Subpart M, 29 CFR 1926.1101 (asbestos), 40 CFR 745 and 29 CFR 1926.62 (lead), and 29 CFR 1910.120 (hazardous waste operations). Supervisors who can apply these correctly reduce citation risk and project delays, which is the kind of value employers pay for.

Documentation and verification

The certification process itself requires four project sheets, each describing the problem, the applicant's own responsibilities and actions, and the outcome. Candidates who already document their work that clearly tend to be the ones who can manage clients, auditors and regulators.

Licensing leverage

In states that regulate remediation work, the right credential can unlock the ability to qualify for a license or to be named as a responsible supervisor on a contractor's license. That can be commercially meaningful to an employer even when it is invisible in a salary survey. More on this below.

Five Competencies, Five Ways to Add Value

The five competency headings published for CIES describe the skill set that employers are effectively buying. Each one is framed as understanding and executing successful remediation, and each addresses engineering controls, cleaning and removal methods, worker safety and applicable regulations. These are unweighted issuer competencies, not an official domain chart, so no percentage weighting is claimed here. For a deeper walkthrough, see CIES Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 5 Content Areas.

The salary relevance is indirect but real: a supervisor competent across all five can take a wider range of assignments, and breadth is typically what lets someone move from a single-discipline crew role into a supervisory or project-management position.

The Investment Side: Dated Fees and Time

While the earnings side is uncertain, the cost side is documented. The figures below come from the ACAC fee schedule and are stated in US dollars. They reflect the issuer's published schedule as rechecked on October 6, 2026; confirm them on ACAC's site before you budget.

No separate member or non-member fee schedule is published. For a full breakdown of what else to budget for, read CIES Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

The exam itself is a three-hour, computer-delivered, closed-book test of 120 multiple-choice questions, each with at least four answer options, and a 75% passing score set using a Modified Angoff method. The scored versus unscored split is not published. Details are in CIES Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

The recurring cost

Certification lasts two years. Current recertification procedures call for 40 recertification credits: 10 for continued field activity and 30 for professional development during the term. The handbook and program page describe the requirement slightly differently, so check the current procedures page when you plan. Add the $400 renewal fee, and the ongoing cost is modest in dollars but steady in time.

The Hidden Cost: Experience and Project Sheets

The exam fee is the smallest part of the investment. The larger cost is the time required to become eligible at all. ACAC offers three pathways:

• A related four-year postsecondary degree, or 30 qualifying college credits, plus four years of documented indoor environmental remediation experience.
• A related two-year degree, or 15 qualifying credits, plus six years of experience.
• A high school diploma or GED plus eight years of experience.

In every case, the experience must cover at least three of five areas: asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, microbial/allergens, and industrial hygiene/chemicals/toxicology. Applicants submit four project sheets, educational evidence where applicable, and experience verification. The full rules are in CIES Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

Application logistics add a timing note. The current ACAC application page describes online submission, required email verifications, a six-month window that includes the examination, and unanimous board approval, with the board meeting every four to six weeks. The candidate handbook instead references 90 days and notarized forms or employer affidavits. This conflict between issuer sources is unresolved, so plan for the longer timeline and confirm with ACAC. See also CIES Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.

Licensing Versus Certification: The Florida Question

One of the most commercially relevant facts for salary discussions is the link between CIES and state licensing. Indexed content from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation lists CIES among the examinations for mold-related services, though a fresh direct retrieval of that page returned an access error, so treat the listing as indicative rather than fully verified.

The regulator's accessible checklist for the Mold Remediator initial license by examination makes one thing clear: passing an approved examination is only one component. Separate application, education and experience requirements, fingerprinting and insurance requirements also apply. And the reverse holds too. A licensing-only exam result does not by itself confer ACAC's CIES certification. State licensing eligibility and ACAC certification eligibility are distinct tracks.

For earnings, this means a licensing credential can raise your value to a Florida contractor even if it never shows up in a national salary survey. If you work in a state with mold-remediation licensing, ask your target employers whether they need a licensed individual on staff and what they pay for that role.

CIES Against Neighboring Credentials

Candidates often weigh CIES against ACAC's other indoor-environment credentials. Pay comparisons between them are not verifiable, but scope comparisons are. The table reflects the general scope distinctions; confirm current requirements for each on ACAC's site.

The practical takeaway: if your employer's work is mostly mold, a mold-specific credential may fit your job directly. If your work crosses asbestos, lead and chemical hazards, CIES's breadth is the point. Our CIES certification overview and What Is CIES Certification? explain the scope in more detail, and CIES meaning clears up the acronym confusion.

Building Your Own ROI Estimate

Since published earnings data is missing, the most defensible approach is to build a personal estimate from local evidence. Here is a framework that avoids invented numbers:

1. Collect job postings. Search for supervisor, project manager and remediation lead roles in your region. Note which ones list CIES or comparable certifications as required or preferred, and what pay ranges they state.
2. Compare certified and uncertified roles. If postings that name a certification list higher ranges than similar ones that do not, that is local evidence, though still not proof of causation.
3. Ask your own employer. Find out whether certification changes your title, bonus structure, bid eligibility or licensing status.
4. Count the full cost. Add the $500 initial fee, any retake, study materials, time off for testing, and the $400 renewal plus continuing-education time every two years.
5. Weigh non-salary value. Credibility with clients and regulators, eligibility to be named on bids, and mobility between employers can matter even when base pay does not change.

If after this exercise the case is weak for your situation, that is a legitimate conclusion. If it is strong, you will have local evidence rather than someone else's average.

On pass rates and risk

Part of the ROI calculation is the risk that you do not pass. The public record here is thin and contradictory. A 2025 pass ratio for CIES was not verified; the 2025 activity report shows dashes, and a dash is not a zero. For 2024, one report lists 2 exams taken and 2 passed, while another lists 2 applicants and 0%. Neither should be treated as a reliable rate. Our page CIES Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows covers this in detail, and How Hard Is the CIES Exam? discusses difficulty qualitatively.

Sequencing Prep Around the Domains

If you decide the credential is worth pursuing, spend your preparation time where your experience is thinnest. Because eligibility only requires three of the five disciplines, most candidates arrive with gaps. The handbook warns that its sample pages are illustrative, not exhaustive, and advises studying the underlying references comprehensively. A sensible sequence follows your weakest areas, using the references tied to each domain.

For a fuller method, see CIES Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt and the one-page CIES Cheat Sheet 2026. For hands-on question practice, the main practice test offers original questions tied to the five competencies. If you want structured instruction options, our CIES training page discusses what is and is not available; note that ACAC does not develop or administer preparation courses and its prep directory did not explicitly list CIES.

Frequently Asked Questions

The honest summary of CIES earnings is that the credential's value is real but not precisely quantified. Treat it as a way to demonstrate multi-hazard supervisory competence, validate years of documented field work, and potentially support licensing and bidding opportunities, then measure the payoff against your own local market using the framework above.