What a security guard earns, by metro

A security guard in Idaho Falls has a median wage of $78,680. In Charleston the median is $20,800. That is a 3.78-fold difference for the same job title, which is unusually wide even by the standards of a country this large — and it means a national average for this role is close to meaningless.

What the percentile band tells you

Ten per cent of security guards earn below $30,210 and ten per cent above $58,840 — a 1.95× band. The upside from median to 90th percentile is 55%, which is a normal amount of room for experience and specialisation to matter. An offer below the 25th percentile is worth questioning; one above the 75th is worth taking seriously.

Why the range is 3.78× wide

The top of the table is spread across several states rather than concentrated in one, which points away from a pure cost-of-living story. Where a role pays 3.78× more in one market than another without a single expensive state dominating, the usual cause is local demand density — a few metros where the industry clusters and employers compete for the same small pool. The security guard concentration table further down shows where that is happening.

Highest paying metros

Lowest paying metros

Where the role is most concentrated

Largest employers by metro

Current openings

About this data

Figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme, May 2025 release, SOC code 33-9032. OEWS surveys employers, so it reports what is actually paid rather than what job advertisements claim, and it excludes the self-employed. Estimates cover 522 of 528 metropolitan areas — near-complete coverage, which means the ranges above are reliable rather than drawn from a handful of markets. Read the methodology.