![\"Casual](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Enrique_Lopezlira_v2_edit-796x1024.jpg\")
Enrique Lopezlira<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of the UC Berkeley Labor Center<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity guards play a critical public safety role,\u201d said UC Berkeley economist Enrique Lopezlira<\/a>, the lead author of the report. \u201cBut their wages, benefits and training have not kept pace with the responsibilities and risks of the job. And it\u2019s not just a job-quality issue \u2014 it\u2019s also a public safety issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Lopezlira is the director of the Low-Wage Work Program<\/a> at the UC Berkeley Labor Center<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> was among four people killed when a gunman opened fire at the New York headquarters of the National Football League.<\/p>\n And yet, the new report presents extensive data that place many California security guards among the state\u2019s working poor. According to the report:<\/p>\n 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<\/a> for the region. Nearly half \u2014 almost 45% \u2014 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.<\/p>\n The lowest-paid quarter of security guards earn an average of about $14.85 an hour.<\/p>\n Nearly half of security guards don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n Among low-wage guards, the report found, the health insurance picture is \u201cconsiderably worse,\u201d with only 45% holding health insurance.<\/p>\n Training is often inadequate. Many California security officers report \u201climited preparation for the increasingly complex and volatile situations they encounter on the job,\u201d the authors write. Training requirements are \u201chighly uneven \u2026 and often minimal relative to the quasi-policing functions that guards are expected to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The pattern is more pronounced among the low-wage security guard workforce. Just under 46% are Latinx, compared to 18.2% who are white.<\/p>\n The numbers convey \u201cthe occupational segregation we see in low-wage industries,\u201d Lopezlira said. \u201cThese are hard jobs, they\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n When people responsible for maintaining safety are better trained and more stable in their jobs, \u2026 that only ends up improving public safety.<\/p>\n Enrique Lopezlira<\/p>\n \u201cBut they\u2019re less likely to speak up about their rights and to fight for fair pay and fair treatment,\u201d he continued. \u201cEmployers many times take advantage of that, and we see that reflected in the very low pay for the riskiness of these professions and occupations.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The new report by the UC Berkeley Labor Center is the latest in a series<\/a> that has focused on security guards in Seattle and Washington state, New York and Baltimore. A major national report is expected later this year.<\/p>\n