Byline: Raymond Hale, business journalist and compensation-data editor with 13 years covering regional banks and labor filings
Last reviewed: June 28, 2026
FirstMerchants pay data only makes sense when the source is named. First Merchants’ 2025 Form 10-K reported 2,086 full-time equivalent employees and 18 percent turnover, while BLS May 2024 data reported a $39,340 median annual wage for tellers and $48,650 for financial clerks.
Those numbers are not interchangeable. One describes a company workforce, another describes a national occupation, and a third-party salary page describes self-reported employee submissions.
What FirstMerchants is in the data
FirstMerchants usually points to First Merchants Corporation and First Merchants Bank, a regional banking company based in Central Indiana. First Merchants’ investor profile says the company is the largest financial holding company based in Central Indiana, with more than 111 banking center locations in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, a wealth management company, and $21.1 billion in total assets as of March 31, 2026.
That company profile matters because FirstMerchants is not one job market. It contains branch service, banking center management, credit, loan production, commercial banking, treasury, wealth, operations, compliance, technology, and corporate work.
One name. Different datasets.
A reader who searches “FirstMerchants salary” may see Glassdoor role estimates, SEC pay-ratio numbers, BLS occupational medians, and company benefits pages. Each source answers a different question. The mistake is treating them as if they all describe the same employee.
SEC filings: strongest for company facts
SEC filings are the strongest source for official company-level data. First Merchants’ investor site lists current SEC filings, including annual reports, proxy materials, and benefit-plan filings.
For workforce size, the Form 10-K is the starting point. The 2025 First Merchants Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K reported 2,086 full-time equivalent employees as of December 31, 2025, and an 18 percent turnover rate in 2025. It also reported a 65 percent “highly engaged” result in its biennial Employee Engagement Survey, an 85 percent survey response rate, 99.7 percent required-training completion, more than 1,500 employees in annual calibration, and more than 55 employees participating in education assistance.
That is hard workforce evidence. It is better than a careers-page adjective because it gives countable data.
But SEC filings have limits. They do not publish a wage table for tellers, service associates, personal bankers, credit analysts, loan officers, branch managers, or treasury staff. A 10-K is written for investors, not job applicants. It gives scale, risk, human-capital metrics, benefit-plan summaries, and corporate context, but not ordinary offer-letter detail.
BLS data: best for occupational benchmarks
BLS data is the cleanest public benchmark for roles, but it is not FirstMerchants payroll. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reported a May 2024 median annual wage of $39,340 for tellers and projected teller employment to decline 13 percent from 2024 to 2034.
BLS also reported a May 2024 median annual wage of $48,650 for financial clerks and projected overall financial clerk employment to decline 5 percent from 2024 to 2034.
That makes BLS useful for role comparisons. Teller-style branch work belongs near the teller benchmark. New-account, loan-interview, and account-support work may be closer to financial clerk categories. Lending roles belong closer to loan officer data, which is a different labor market with a higher median wage than tellers.
The interpretation is simple: BLS tells what similar occupations earn nationally, not what FirstMerchants pays a specific person in Indiana, Michigan, or Ohio.
This is where many salary pages become sloppy. They borrow a national BLS number and write as if it were company-specific. It is not. It is a labor-market baseline.
| Source type | Best use | What it cannot prove |
|---|---|---|
| First Merchants Form 10-K | Headcount, turnover, training, engagement, benefit-plan context | Job-level wages |
| First Merchants Proxy Statement | CEO pay, median employee pay ratio, executive compensation | Teller or banker salary |
| BLS OOH/OEWS | National occupational wage and outlook benchmarks | FirstMerchants payroll |
| Glassdoor | Self-reported company role estimates | Official pay scale |
| Careers/benefits page | Benefit categories and employer positioning | Premiums, deductibles, PTO tiers |
Glassdoor: useful but self-reported
Glassdoor can fill the job-title gap that SEC and BLS leave open. In 2026, Glassdoor’s First Merchants salary page reported U.S. salary submissions for First Merchants, but the search result itself is broad and Glassdoor data depends on anonymous employee reports, title matching, and sample size.
That makes it directional, not definitive.
A First Merchants Service Associate estimate can be compared with BLS teller data. A Banking Center Manager estimate can be compared with branch-management expectations. A Credit Analyst estimate can be compared with credit and finance roles. But the figures should not be treated as official company ranges unless First Merchants publishes them in a job posting or compensation document.
The best use of Glassdoor is pattern recognition. If self-reported service roles cluster near BLS teller medians, and credit or management roles appear higher, that supports a role-ladder reading. It does not prove what the next applicant will be offered.
Sample size matters. Job titles drift. Bonus treatment may vary.
Proxy statements: useful, but often misread
The First Merchants proxy statement is valuable for executive compensation and CEO pay-ratio disclosure. First Merchants’ SEC filings page lists proxy filings as separate documents, and the 2026 proxy materials are part of the company’s current disclosure set.
The proxy pay ratio can show the company-wide median employee total compensation under SEC rules. It can also show CEO total compensation and executive pay structure.
The trap is treating the proxy median as a normal wage. A median employee total compensation figure may include more than base pay, may use a specific employee population, and may follow SEC pay-ratio methodology. It is not the same thing as a teller wage, personal banker wage, or credit analyst salary.
That distinction matters because FirstMerchants has very different role families. Branch transaction work, credit analysis, commercial lending, treasury, wealth, risk, and corporate leadership do not belong in one salary bucket.
The better reading is layered: use proxy data for company-wide compensation disclosure, BLS for occupational benchmarks, Glassdoor for self-reported role clues, and job postings for live offer ranges when available.
Earnings releases: good for company health, not pay rates
First Merchants’ Fourth Quarter 2025 earnings release said the company achieved record full-year results, including net income available to common stockholders of $224.1 million and diluted EPS of $3.88 for 2025.
That is useful context. A profitable regional bank may have more room for hiring, retention, incentives, technology investment, or acquisitions than a struggling one.
But an earnings release does not tell what a branch service associate earns. It does not publish salary bands. It does not explain PTO rules or medical premium costs. A strong earnings year can support workforce investment, but it does not automatically raise every role.
This is the second analytical point: company performance is background context, not a wage scale. It helps explain stability and capacity. It does not replace compensation data.
Acquisition context can change the workforce picture
First Merchants’ Q1 2026 earnings release said first-quarter 2026 net income available to common stockholders was $27.7 million, compared with $54.9 million in the same period in 2025, and that current-quarter results included $17.0 million of acquisition costs primarily consisting of employee retention bonuses, severance, contract termination charges, and professional fees.
That line is important for workforce interpretation. Retention bonuses and severance are not routine pay levels, but they show labor costs tied to corporate integration. Acquisition years can make employee data noisy because headcount, job duplication, severance, retention awards, and branch integration may all move at once.
The 2025 10-K workforce figure and the 2026 earnings release are both real. They answer different questions. The 10-K gives year-end human-capital data. The earnings release explains a later quarter with acquisition-related costs.
A clean article keeps those periods apart.
Benefits sources: category list versus plan value
First Merchants’ public benefits materials list retirement, health, dental, vision, wellness, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, disability coverage, paid time off, holidays, bereavement, education assistance, and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
That list confirms benefit categories. It does not price the package.
A stronger source for retirement detail is a plan filing. First Merchants’ SEC filings page shows an 11-K filing on June 11, 2026 for employee stock purchase, savings, and similar plans. A plan filing can provide more reliable retirement-plan information than a marketing-style benefits page.
The limitation remains: even when a 401(k) match formula is visible, medical premiums, deductibles, PTO accrual, eligibility timing, and ESPP mechanics may not be fully available from public pages. Benefits should be reported as confirmed categories unless the plan document gives a number.
What BLS outlook says about career risk
BLS projected teller employment to decline 13 percent from 2024 to 2034, while financial clerk employment is projected to decline 5 percent over the same period.
That outlook is not a prediction for FirstMerchants alone. It is a national occupational projection.
Still, it is relevant. FirstMerchants operates a regional branch network, and routine transaction work is the bank labor category under the most pressure. Digital banking, ATMs, mobile deposits, remote account tools, and branch efficiency all affect staffing models.
The practical reading is not that FirstMerchants branch jobs vanish. The cleaner read is that routine branch and clerical roles have weaker long-term labor-market signals than roles tied to lending, credit, treasury, wealth, risk, technology, commercial relationships, and management.
Where the headline number misleads
A headline like “FirstMerchants workers earn $62,000” can be technically sourced and still misleading if the number comes from proxy median compensation. A headline like “FirstMerchants pays $39,000” can also mislead if it borrows a teller benchmark and implies the whole company sits there.
The cleanest pay article refuses one-number storytelling. It separates:
BLS teller median: $39,340.
BLS financial clerk median: $48,650.
First Merchants FTE workforce: 2,086.
First Merchants 2025 turnover: 18 percent.
First Merchants 2025 net income available to common stockholders: $224.1 million.
Those numbers are all useful. None of them alone describes “what FirstMerchants pays.”
A source hierarchy for FirstMerchants coverage
Use SEC filings first for official company facts: headcount, turnover, engagement, training, benefit-plan filings, acquisitions, executive compensation, and investor-level financial results.
Use BLS for occupation-level pay and outlook: tellers, financial clerks, loan officers, and broader financial roles.
Use Glassdoor for company-specific salary hints, but label it as self-reported.
Use benefits pages for categories, not pricing.
Use earnings releases for company health and acquisition context, not job-level pay.
That hierarchy prevents the most common reporting error: mixing official corporate disclosure, labor-market averages, and anonymous salary submissions as if they carry the same weight.
Data limits
The public record does not show a full FirstMerchants wage scale by job title, state, city, tenure, branch type, incentive plan, or manager level. BLS data is national occupational data, not company payroll. Glassdoor data is self-reported. SEC filings are official but written for investors and regulators. Benefits pages may omit employee costs and eligibility rules.
Data reflects 2024 BLS wage and outlook pages, 2025 First Merchants reporting, 2026 SEC filings, and salary pages visible in 2026. Acquisition activity and local hiring conditions may shift the picture.
FAQ
What is the best source for FirstMerchants workforce size?
The First Merchants Corporation Form 10-K is the best source for official workforce size. The 2025 Form 10-K reported 2,086 full-time equivalent employees as of December 31, 2025.
What is the best source for FirstMerchants pay?
There is no single best source for all pay. BLS is strongest for occupational benchmarks, SEC proxy materials are strongest for company-wide pay-ratio disclosure, and Glassdoor is useful for self-reported role estimates.
Does BLS show FirstMerchants salaries?
No. BLS shows occupational wages, not FirstMerchants payroll. Its May 2024 data reported $39,340 median annual pay for tellers and $48,650 for financial clerks.
Can Glassdoor be trusted for First Merchants salaries?
Glassdoor can be useful directionally, but it is self-reported. Treat it as a role estimate source, not an official wage scale.
Why is the SEC proxy median easy to misuse?
The proxy median is calculated under SEC pay-ratio rules across a mixed workforce. It is not a salary for a specific role such as teller, personal banker, or credit analyst.
What does turnover say about FirstMerchants?
The 2025 Form 10-K reported 18 percent turnover. That shows workforce movement, but the public figure does not break turnover down by role, department, or state.
What source shows company performance?
Earnings releases and SEC filings show company performance. First Merchants reported record full-year 2025 net income available to common stockholders of $224.1 million and diluted EPS of $3.88 in its Fourth Quarter 2025 earnings release.
What is the safest pay takeaway?
FirstMerchants pay should be read by role and source type. SEC filings show company facts, BLS shows occupational labor markets, Glassdoor shows self-reported role estimates, and benefits pages show categories rather than full plan value.