Both are permission to work with classified information. Here is what each level covers, how long each takes, what each one pays, and how to move up.
A Secret and a Top Secret are two levels of the same thing. Both are permission to work with classified information. What separates them is the harm a leak would cause, how deep the check goes, and how long you wait.
A Top Secret takes longer. It also opens more jobs and pays more. Here is what each level covers, how you get either one, and how to move up from a Secret to a Top Secret.
There are three, ranked by the damage a leak would do.
Two things about that list. Each level covers the ones under it, so a Top Secret covers Secret and Confidential work. And SCI is not a fourth level. Sensitive Compartmented Information is a layer added on top of a Top Secret, handed out job by job.
A security clearance is permission from the U.S. government to work with classified information. You cannot get one on your own. A job sponsors you.
The jobs. Secret work sits across the Defense Department and the military. Read enough defense contractor postings and this is the level you will see most.
The check. You fill out the SF-86. Investigators verify who you are, where you have lived and worked, and how your finances look. The form asks for ten years of addresses and jobs, and seven years of nearly everything else.
The wait. An interim Secret often comes through in days to a couple of weeks. That is the part most people miss. You can be sitting at a cleared desk long before the final answer lands.
The pay. The 2026 ClearanceJobs compensation survey put average total compensation for a DoD Secret at $107,439.
The jobs. A Top Secret is common government-wide. It runs from the military to the Justice Department, and it opens senior defense, law enforcement, and program work.
The reach. A clearance also gets you to work you cannot see from the outside. Some roles live behind secure networks only cleared professionals can reach.
The wait. An interim Top Secret usually takes one to two months.
The pay. The same survey put a DoD Top Secret at $126,839. That is roughly $19,000 a year above the Secret average.
The rest of the package. Top-tier clearances come with better benefits too: fully employer-paid healthcare, stronger retirement matches, relocation perks.
TS/SCI is a Top Secret plus access to sensitive compartments. Those compartments are handed out on a need-to-know basis, and you do not learn what one means until you are read in. That happens on your first day.
This is what the Intelligence Community runs on, and it carries the highest salaries. The survey puts DoD TS/SCI at $139,261. Work supporting an intelligence agency like CIA, FBI, or NSA averaged $165,063. The survey said it plainly: the gap between a Secret clearance and intelligence agency work is nearly $60,000 a year.
The polygraph. Most cleared jobs require none. Most DoD Secret and Top Secret roles have no polygraph at all, because it is largely an Intelligence Community and special-program requirement. The counterintelligence poly, the CI, is the most common by far. A full scope combines the CI and the lifestyle poly in one, and only a handful of intelligence agencies give it, NSA and CIA among them.
It shows up in the pay. Cleared professionals with no polygraph averaged $118,680 in that same survey. With a CI poly the average was $148,128, and with a lifestyle or full scope it came in at $149,875. Here is what a polygraph actually involves.
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✓Four proven ways to get sponsored, down to the message to send a recruiter
✓The ten myths that keep people out, and what really disqualifies you
✓What happens once you're sponsored: the SF-86, foreign ties, and the polygraph
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DCSA runs these investigations for industry, and it publishes average processing times every quarter. The newest set covers the third quarter of fiscal 2026, and ClearanceJobs reported it in September 2026.
Look at where the days go. The investigation is not the long part. The wait for a decision is.
Add SCI and it depends on the agency. The Intelligence Community's own careers site puts its whole process at nine to twelve months on average. Many agencies grant no interim at all, and the IC is one of them. Everywhere else the interim is why those averages are not the whole story, and the rest is in how long a security clearance takes.
The rule that decides everything. You cannot get a clearance on your own. There is no application window, no fee, and no form you can file yourself. An employer has to sponsor you, and you get sponsored by landing a job that requires a clearance.
On the federal side. Almost every job that requires a clearance will sponsor you, even when the posting does not say so.
On the contractor side. Plenty of companies sponsor, and they say so right in the posting with the words "ability to obtain." The agency is still the one sponsoring you, even when it looks like the company did.
From there the steps are the same almost everywhere. A conditional offer. Sponsorship. The SF-86, filled out in eApp. The investigation. The decision. Eligibility granted, then access for your specific job.
Investigators gather the facts. A different person at the agency makes the call. Your employer does neither one.
One hard rule. You have to be a U.S. citizen. Dual citizenship by itself does not sink you. A green card does not qualify.
None of it costs you anything. Anyone charging you for a clearance is selling something that cannot be sold. The whole route in is how clearance sponsorship actually works, and the form itself is how to fill out the SF-86.
The job sets the level, not you. So start with the work. Go after the jobs posted at the level you want, and use the sponsorship routes to get in.
The Top Secret is the one that opens the most doors and carries the highest pay. If that is the work you are after, go after jobs posted at that level.
The move that gets people in the door. Take the job that sponsors you, even when the pay is low. Your clearance is a bargaining chip the moment it is granted. You can stay, use it to find a better role, or negotiate where you are. From what I have seen in this market, cleared roles pay $30,000 to $60,000 above comparable uncleared ones.
You also get time. Leave that job and the clearance stays usable for about two years, and a new employer can pick it back up.
A clearance you already hold can be raised. A Secret to a Top Secret. A Top Secret to TS/SCI. A polygraph added to what you have.
What that looks like day to day. You keep working the lower-level work while the higher level is processed. You are not sitting out the wait.
Moving between agencies. One agency generally accepts another agency's clearance, which is called reciprocity. It can vary, especially with polygraphs, SCI, and special access programs.
Look at the ladder one more time. $107,439 at Secret. $126,839 at Top Secret. $139,261 at TS/SCI. $165,063 supporting an intelligence agency. A clearance is a career asset, so use it as one.
Public Trust shows up on federal postings, so here is where it sits. It is a background check for jobs where a bad hire could do real harm without any secrets involved. Think policy, big programs, public safety, and money.
The form is the SF-85P, not the SF-86. Nothing classified crosses that desk, so a Public Trust is not "cleared" for anything.
It is not a rung on the clearance ladder, and it does not convert into a Secret. A job that needs a Secret is a public trust job too. It does not work the other way.
You cannot start one yourself either. The employer puts you in for it when the job calls for it. Read the clearance line on a posting and you will know which check that job runs.
If cleared work is where you are headed, the sponsorship and paperwork steps come next. The rest of the guides are here.
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