U.S. Security Guard Labor Costs 2026 Guard and Stocker Pay Within 50 Cents in 20 States

GuardMetrics analysis found that the published median hourly wage estimates for security guards and stockers and order fillers were within $0.50 of each other in 20 of the 50 states. [1] These are May 2025 estimates, the latest BLS release available for this 2026 guide. Nationally, the guard median of $18.28 was $0.33 above the stocker and order filler median of $17.95. [2]

For an owner reviewing pay, that comparison raises a practical question: how does your offer compare with other hourly work in the market where you recruit? Your wage budget also needs to cover the staffing and operating costs behind each post or patrol route.

Use the comparative findings and the reference for all 50 states and DC to review pay. Then use the worked examples to build employer cost, overtime premiums and cost per completed patrol visit from your own inputs. Wage figures are BLS estimates; comparisons and illustrative models are GuardMetrics calculations.

National security guard wage benchmarks

Estimated hourly wages in May 2025 for Security Guards, SOC 33-9032. All figures are dollars per hour.

Selected industry means security guards employed in Investigation, Guard, and Armored Car Services, NAICS 561610. It is not a contract-guard-only survey. The national middle half of guard wages falls between $16.93 and $22.21.

BLS wages exclude overtime premiums, shift differentials and employer benefit costs. [4] The estimates combine employers and assignments; they do not separate armed, unarmed or mobile patrol work.

What the comparative wage findings show

Using BLS national and state estimates [1, 2], we compared security guards with three hourly occupations from the same period and geography. The national guard median is higher than each comparison median, but the state pattern differs. Counts give each state one count; they are not shares of U.S. guard employment.

*Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners. Occupation codes and calculation rules appear in the methodology. DC is in the full reference table but excluded from the 50-state counts.

Of the 18 states with lower guard estimates, eight gaps were $0.30 or less and 10 exceeded $0.30. The 50-cent grouping describes proximity between published estimates; it does not establish equivalent pay or a statistically significant difference. See the methodology and BLS reliability guidance. [10]

Four markets that show the difference

Florida guards had a median $0.24 below stockers and order fillers; Texas guards were $0.41 below. California guards were $0.18 above, while New York guards were $2.51 above. These are same-period comparisons, not current job offers or evidence of why applicants choose a job.

Check local BLS area estimates and current offers alongside the state figures. Compare responsibilities, licensing, driving requirements, shifts and benefits before adjusting pay. State medians can hide differences between the labor markets where your posts and routes operate.

A current Florida planning issue

Florida’s minimum wage increased to $15.00 on September 30, 2026. [5] The May 2025 guard median was $17.26 and the 25th percentile was $15.55. The older estimates do not establish how many guards are affected today. Review your current payroll and client budgets against the new floor and local hiring conditions.

Scenario 1 Coverage hours and overtime

A single-officer post operating continuously requires 168 coverage hours a week and 8,760 hours in a 365-day year. The wage comparison below prices every coverage hour at straight time; leave, training, overtime and other employer costs are added separately.

Each $1 hourly increase adds $8,760 to this annual coverage wage budget. Moving from $20 to $22 adds $17,520 before employer costs.

Coverage hours do not establish a sufficient roster

At 40 hours per employee, 168 weekly hours equal 4.2 full-time equivalents. Four officers limited to 40 hours supply 160 hours. Another available officer can cover the remaining eight hours at straight time; using overtime instead creates a premium. The roster also needs capacity for leave, training, breaks requiring relief and absences.

Compare the extra overtime premium

For this workweek example, total coverage stays at 168 hours, the regular rate is $22 and overtime pays 1.5 times that rate. Overtime replaces straight-time coverage; it adds the extra $11 per hour, because the first $22 is already in the base budget.

Eight overtime hours would add $88 in this workweek. Premiums belong to the individual officer’s total hours across posts, not just the hours at one client site. [6]

California’s general rules also include daily overtime. Three 12-hour workdays can trigger overtime despite totaling only 36 weekly hours. [7] Apply the actual regular rate and any relevant exceptions or alternative-workweek rules to the roster you are costing.

Scenario 2 Build total employer cost

This illustrative post uses the $22 wage and 8,760 coverage hours above, plus 400 paid hours for leave and off-post training allocated to the post. No overtime is assumed. The employer tax rate is sourced; the other cost inputs are hypothetical company allocations, not industry benchmarks.

Coverage wages already include replacement coverage. The 400 extra hours pay noncoverage leave and training. Employer FICA combines 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare; each officer is assumed below the 2026 Social Security wage base of $184,500. Calculate taxes by employee. [8]

Translate the budget into a pricing decision

Employer cost is $27.65 per covered hour. Management, general liability and back-office overhead bring cost before profit to $29.93. An illustrative 10% operating margin after these costs, before interest and income taxes, requires dividing unrounded hourly cost by 0.90: approximately $33.26 per billable covered hour. This is a margin on revenue, not a markup or an industry margin benchmark.

The insurance cases below change only workers’ compensation. The 3%, 5% and 8% inputs are hypothetical sensitivity tests, not quoted rates or a claimed market range. Replace them with your policy’s effective cost for the applicable work and payroll.

All coverage hours are assumed billable. Use actual unbilled work, payment terms and service requirements when setting the price.

Scenario 3 Cost per completed patrol visit

For a mobile patrol route serving property-management or HOA accounts, wages need to be related to completed service. Count travel, required on-site work, reporting and other paid time, then add vehicle costs and the support allocated to the route.

This illustrative route has one eight-hour paid officer shift, 80 total route miles and 20 completed visits that meet the client’s service requirements. The officer wage is $22; an assumed $6 per paid hour allocates additional employer costs. The resulting $28 employer labor rate is specific to this example, not a patrol wage benchmark.

Use your fleet’s fuel, maintenance, ownership and insurance costs to set the vehicle input. Allocate dispatch and overhead once. This example assumes no overtime; its $6 labor allocation covers employer costs separately from the other route rows. The mileage input is a company cost assumption, not a tax mileage rate.

The number of completed visits changes unit cost

Holding the example’s route expenses constant, 16 completed visits instead of 20 increases allocated cost per visit by 25%. That is a planning sensitivity, not a suggestion to shorten required patrols. Visit duration, route geography, service windows and incident workload determine the visits a route can deliver.

Cost per visit is an operating measure. A client may pay per visit, per hour, by retainer or under another arrangement. Compare route cost with the actual contract revenue and service obligations before changing your price or schedule.

Check that the patrol plan fits the paid shift

The 20-visit example can be described as a 480-minute shift. These time inputs are hypothetical and must be replaced with route records.

Driving and reporting wages are already inside the eight-hour labor cost. Adding their labor value again would overstate the route budget. More miles or longer required visits also consume time; they cannot be treated as vehicle or service changes alone.

Completing the same required reports in two minutes rather than three would release 20 minutes in this example. Use actual travel and service times to determine whether that supports another compliant visit, incident capacity or fewer paid hours. With the same eight paid hours, the officer’s $176 wage cost remains unchanged.

Use your records to choose the next improvement

Start with one post or route. Compare the required service with recorded hours and completed work. Review officer-level overtime, paid noncoverage hours, fleet cost and the time spent on follow-up. Each improvement should have a measurable effect on expense, service capacity or client delivery.

For a first review of your wage, overtime, reporting and administration inputs, use the Security Operations Cost & Risk Assessment. It provides directional estimates, with detailed results requiring contact information. Use a separate route budget for mileage and cost per completed visit.

Review the workflows behind the cost

GuardMetrics security guard scheduling shows coverage by post and workload by officer, with overtime and assignment warnings when configured.

Its security guard timekeeping helps authorized managers compare scheduled and recorded time and review discrepancies. Management applies the relevant pay rules.

Bring one recurring coverage, overtime or timekeeping issue to a demo, along with the post or route you want to improve.

Request a GuardMetrics Demo

Full state wage reference

May 2025 hourly estimates in dollars. Security Guards, SOC 33-9032, and Stockers and Order Fillers, SOC 53-7065, across covered industries. The table includes all 50 states and DC. A negative final column means the guard median is lower. [1]

Source: BLS May 2025 state estimates. GuardMetrics calculates guard median minus stocker median from the published hourly estimates. Percentiles describe the wage distribution; they do not prescribe pay for an experience level or assignment.

Methodology and sources

Wage estimates are from the May 2025 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release, published May 15, 2026. [9] Sources were checked October 7, 2026. BLS combines six panels across three years and adjusts earlier wages to the reference period. [4]

Selection and reproduction: national_M2025_dl.xlsx and state_M2025_dl.xlsx use cross-industry NAICS 000000 and ownership 1235. Select Security Guards 33-9032, Stockers and Order Fillers 53-7065, Retail Salespersons 41-2031, and Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners 37-2011. For the selected industry column, use nat5d_6d_M2025_dl.xlsx, occupation 33-9032, NAICS 561610 and ownership 5.

Fields: H_PCT10, H_PCT25, H_MEDIAN, H_PCT75, H_PCT90 and H_MEAN. Round published hourly estimates to two decimals. Differences equal guard H_MEDIAN minus comparison H_MEDIAN within the same geography and period. The 20-state proximity count uses absolute differences of $0.50 or less; the 18-state count uses negative differences, with 10 below -$0.30. Count each of the 50 states once; exclude DC and territories. DC remains in the reference table.

Uncertainty: these are comparisons of published point estimates. The 50-cent band is a descriptive cutoff, not a confidence interval. BLS reports model-error measures for employment and mean wages; the file’s MEAN_PRSE does not give median uncertainty. [10] No median significance test or equivalence test is performed. Counts are not employee-weighted shares or evidence of why applicants choose jobs.

Scenario method: inputs are hypothetical unless a statutory rate is cited. Continuous coverage uses 365 × 24 = 8,760 hours; a leap year uses 8,784. The overtime table is one 168-hour workweek. Add paid noncoverage wages once; apply stated taxes and allocations; divide annual cost by covered hours. The 10% operating-margin example is after listed overhead, before interest and income taxes. Bill rate equals unrounded cost per billable covered hour divided by 0.90. Insurance cases hold other inputs constant. Patrol cost is divided by compliant completed visits; its time budget totals 480 minutes. Retain precision before display rounding.

Scope: this is analysis of public estimates and worked budgeting examples, not a company survey or measured customer results. It does not establish current job offers, a universal burden multiplier, required staffing levels, a recommended profit margin or software savings. Replace allocations with actual payroll, insurance, benefit, vehicle and contract records.

[1] BLS state wage estimates  May 2025; state_M2025_dl.xlsx.

[2] BLS national wage estimates  May 2025; national_M2025_dl.xlsx.

[3] BLS industry wage estimates  May 2025; nat5d_6d_M2025_dl.xlsx.

[4] BLS technical notes  May 2025 definitions and estimation methods.

[5] FloridaCommerce minimum wage  $15.00 effective September 30, 2026.

[6] U.S. Department of Labor Fact Sheet 4  Security Guard/Maintenance Service Industry under the FLSA.

[7] California DIR overtime guidance  General daily and weekly provisions and exceptions.

[8] IRS Publication 15  2026 employer Social Security and Medicare rates and wage base.

[9] BLS release announcement  May 2025 estimates; released May 15, 2026.

[10] BLS OEWS reliability guidance  Model-error measures for employment and mean wage estimates.

Find area data and readable reference pages through the BLS OEWS tables directory.

For the derived comparisons, credit “GuardMetrics analysis of BLS May 2025 OEWS estimates” and link to this resource and methodology. Individual wage estimates are sourced to BLS. Cite scenarios with their hypothetical inputs and assumptions.

Content review and SEO handoff

Private publishing notes for Jamie. The preceding article, full state table, methodology and sources are approved public copy. This section and the review-copy footer are excluded from the website. Jamie Sene gave final content approval on October 7, 2026.

Revision and citation purpose

The final review leads with published guard and stocker medians within $0.50 in 20 states. It retains the 18 lower guard estimates with the eight small gaps and 10 larger gaps explained. No cutoff is treated as statistical significance. Employer costs now use a hypothetical 5% workers’ compensation input with 3% and 8% sensitivity cases and a 10% operating-margin example. Patrol economics remain unchanged. Derived analysis is GuardMetrics analysis of BLS estimates, not a proprietary survey; editorial acceptance and future links remain unproven.

Recommended page fields

Proposed SEO title: Security Guard Labor Costs 2026: Guard vs. Stocker Pay

Proposed meta description: Compare guard and stocker wage estimates across 50 states and DC, total employer costs, insurance assumptions and patrol cost per completed visit.

Permanent URL: Pending Step 2 search-intent and page-overlap review. Candidate only: security-guard-labor-cost-benchmarks.

Free Resources label: Guard Wage and Cost Guide

Public, ungated resource in Scheduling / Timekeeping / Operations. Keep the owner-focused labor-cost topic. A preliminary search-result review found both career-oriented wage pages and competing owner pricing guides; search volume, ranking difficulty and Search Console overlap remain unmeasured. Validate those in Step 2 before finalizing page fields and the permanent URL.

Links and product evidence

Use the assessment after the patrol interpretation and the demo at the close. The assessment does not replace the route cost model. Add contextual links from suitable scheduling, timekeeping, assessment and resource pages after approval. Product evidence remains controlled inventory F004, F030 and W005, plus Scheduler Training Manual section 14, printed pages 39–40. Preserve configuration, access and management responsibilities in any further edit.

Current public destinations checked October 7: scheduling /security-guard-scheduling-software-system-2/, timekeeping /timekeeping-software-system-app/, assessment /security-operations-cost-risk-assessment/, and demo /guardmetrics-officer-management-demo/. Recheck HTTP status, redirects and canonicals in Step 2; resolve the older scheduling inventory variant then.

Website presentation and release

Use readable HTML tables and anchor navigation to findings, cost scenarios, full state reference and sources. Keep the full table accessible with labeled columns on mobile. Retain a direct opening answer without a duplicate Quick Answer block. Use accurate corporate credit, approved byline and the actual publication date. Step 2 follows content approval and the established backup, private-preview, layout approval and live QA controls. Recheck wage and statutory sources before a delayed release.

Primary source verification record

Private review record for Jamie. These 10 selected geographies were checked directly in the BLS state workbook. All 51 state and DC reference rows were also reconciled to that source. The table below gives the source rows so another reviewer can reproduce the checks.

Workbook: state_M2025_dl.xlsx in the BLS state download. Use the first worksheet, cross-industry NAICS 000000, ownership 1235, Security Guards 33-9032 and Stockers and Order Fillers 53-7065.

In that worksheet, column V is H_PCT25, W is H_MEDIAN and X is H_PCT75. Guard and stocker rows are listed separately. Hourly estimates below are rounded to published cents.

Highlighted checks: West Virginia V34776 is $10.00; District of Columbia W5912 is $30.87. Both match the original BLS workbook. Nevada W20321 is $17.94 versus stockers W20661 at $17.97; Tennessee W30381 is $17.31 versus W30755 at $17.38. These two small gaps remain descriptive estimates.

Final review controls

Verified counts from the 50-state source rows: 20 absolute guard–stocker gaps of $0.50 or less; 18 negative gaps; eight negative gaps of $0.30 or less; 10 negative gaps exceeding $0.30. DC is excluded from every count.

The IRS 2026 Social Security wage base and employer tax rates, FloridaCommerce minimum-wage date and amount, and California DIR daily-overtime guidance were rechecked against the official sources on October 7. The 10% operating margin and workers’ compensation cases are assumptions, not verified industry averages. Jamie Sene gave final content approval on October 7, 2026.