Tens of thousands of private security guards in California play a critical role in public safety, but poverty-level wages and poor training put both the guards and the public at risk, according to a new study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
The study, released today (Thursday, April 23), found that nearly half of security guards statewide are low-wage workers - and that rises to more than two-thirds of security guards in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some 80% of them don't earn enough to meet basic living needs, and little more than half have health insurance provided by their employers or unions.
Photo courtesy of the UC Berkeley Labor Center
"Security guards play a critical public safety role," said UC Berkeley economist Enrique Lopezlira, the lead author of the report. "But their wages, benefits and training have not kept pace with the responsibilities and risks of the job. And it's not just a job-quality issue - it's also a public safety issue.
"When a workforce that is responsible for safety is underpaid, undertrained and experiencing high turnover, that has real implications for the quality and consistency of security services in the state."
Lopezlira is the director of the Low-Wage Work Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. In an interview, he said economic justice concerns are more pronounced because the majority of private security guards are Black or Latinx, and more than one in five are immigrants.
According to the new report, there are about 186,000 security guards employed by private firms in California, roughly 40% of them in the Los Angeles area. They work in locations that span the economy: retail stores, office buildings, construction sites, hospitals and private schools, among others. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they were classified as essential workers. Nationally, private unarmed guard services alone generate $22.7 billion a year in revenue.
The job carries risks: Security guards are at times required to enforce rules in high-pressure public settings, manage conflict and respond to safety concerns. Occasionally, they must respond to violent incidents. Last July, for example, an unarmed security officer was among four people killed when a gunman opened fire at the New York headquarters of the National Football League.
And yet, the new report presents extensive data that place many California security guards among the state's working poor. According to the report:
Security guards often are not paid a living wage. Statewide, private security guards earn a median annual income of $38,371, with a median hourly wage of just over $20 an hour. About 80% of private security guards in California earn less than the MIT Living Wage for the region. Nearly half - just almost 45% - are classified as low-wage workers because they are paid less than two-thirds of the median hourly wage for all full-time workers in their region. The proportion of low-wage security guards rises to 68% in the Bay Area.
The lowest-paid quarter of security guards earn an average of about $14.85 an hour.
Nearly half of security guards don't have health insurance. Though most security guards work full-time, only 54% statewide have health insurance provided by their employers or their unions. In the Bay Area, that figure rises to nearly 64%, or nearly two-thirds.
Among low-wage guards, the report found, the health insurance picture is "considerably worse," with only 45% holding health insurance.
Training is often inadequate. Many California security officers report "limited preparation for the increasingly complex and volatile situations they encounter on the job," the authors write. Training requirements are "highly uneven … and often minimal relative to the quasi-policing functions that guards are expected to perform."
The numbers reflect pervasive racial inequity. Among the corps of private security officers in California, more than 40% are Latinx and nearly a quarter are Black. By comparison, 20% are white and 10% are Asian or Pacific Islander. Nearly 22% are immigrants.
The pattern is more pronounced among the low-wage security guard workforce. Just under 46% are Latino, compared to 18.2% who are white.
The numbers convey "the occupational segregation we see in low-wage industries," Lopezlira said. "These are hard jobs, they're risky jobs, and the pay does not compensate for that risk. So the folks who are willing to do these jobs are usually marginalized workers who need work to provide for themselves and their families.
When people responsible for maintaining safety are better trained and more stable in their jobs, … that only ends up improving public safety.
Enrique Lopezlira
"But they're less likely to speak up about their rights and to fight for fair pay and fair treatment," he continued. "Employers many times take advantage of that, and we see that reflected in the very low pay for the riskiness of these professions and occupations."
Another result of low pay and difficult working conditions is high turnover, the report says. In 2014, the California data show annual turnover at nearly 83%, but that rose to 95% in 2019 before falling back to nearly 92% in 2024. Turnover was far lower in other parts of the private sector.
The new report by the UC Berkeley Labor Center is the latest in a series that has focused on security guards in Seattle and Washington state, New York and Baltimore. A major national report is expected later this year.
It comes at a time when unions representing many California private security guards are in contract negotiations pressing for improved pay and working conditions. Meanwhile, the state legislature is considering a measure to require better training.
"It's fundamentally about public safety," Lopezlira said. "A lot of times, these security guards are the first on the scene when a conflict or emergency arises. Having the required training allows them to help de-escalate conflicts or improve a stressful, potentially dangerous situation.
"When people responsible for maintaining safety are better trained and more stable in their jobs, service quality improves - and that only ends up improving public safety."
