The average network security engineer salary is way above the national average.   The national average annual income as of 2012 was $50,017 (with 15% in poverty).  The average network security engineer salary is $84000/year.

network security engineer salary against Average American Salary

The reason that network security engineers can make such a good income is the level of expertise required.  They often have to have a 4 year degree, IT certifications and a few years experience in the field.  The level of technical knowledge required is higher than the average professional skill set even by IT standards.  The network security engineer has to have a working understanding of both security & networking bodies of knowledge.

Of course, nothing beats experience but some or the top network security engineer salary “contributing factors” include:  CISSP, GCIA, GCIH, CEH.  Then there are specific vendor certifications that depend on the product but as of 2014, Cisco certs are strong in the market, Juniper, Checkpoint, Palo Alto or any of the top tier firewalls IDS/IPS and SIEM devices.  Any sort of certifications, experience and/or training is relevant with specific devices.

Average Salary of Network Security Engineers and related titles (from indeed.com – 2013)

http://www.indeed.com/salary/Network-Security-Engineer.html

references:

data gathered from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032012/hhinc/toc.htm and wikipedia

http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/17/news/economy/poverty-income/