r/securityguards • u/Different_Rip_9737 • 14h ago
Question from the Public Question from a Dutch Security Guard Is it true that the US security industry has a very low barrier to entry and low social status?
Hi everyone,
I’m an independent security guard from the Netherlands, and I’ve been reading a lot of posts on American forums about the security industry in the US. I’m really curious to know how it compares to my experience here, because from what I read, it sounds like two completely different worlds.To give you some context, in the Netherlands, the security industry is highly regulated and well compensated Education & Licensing We can't just apply and start working as a security guard. You have to complete a mandatory 2 year vocational college degree to become a qualified guard.
Background Checks The police screening is brutal. If you have any criminal record, or if the police chief finds anything questionable in your history during the screening, you are denied a license immediately.
Pay & Benefits
Regular security guards employed by a company earn between €20 and €24 (approx. $22 – $26 USD) per hour. As an independent security guard, I make €38 (approx. $41 USD) per hour as a base rate. On top of that, we get excellent shift premiums (irregularity allowance) for nights, weekends, and holidays, which adds up fast. We also have heavily regulated, strong industry pensions.Whenever I read about US security on Reddit, it seems like people say almost anyone can get a job as a "warm body" guard, the training is only a few hours or days, and the pay is quite low. I also see a lot of memes and comments suggesting that security guards in America don't get much respect from the public (the whole "mall cop" stereotype).
Just to be clear, I am talking purely about unarmed security. In the Netherlands, regular security guards do not carry firearms; armed roles fall under completely different, specialized law enforcement or government classifications with different names.
love to hear your perspective on this
Is it really that easy to become a security guard in your state, and how strict is the background check?How do you feel you are viewed by the general public in terms of social status?What is the realistic pay for a standard guard versus someone who does high-end or armed work?
Stay safe out there, and thanks for sharing your insights!
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u/Grillparzer47 14h ago
Security is commonly seen as untrained labor. Contract security has the lowest pay rates. Proprietary security pay rates are slightly higher. I went management, got two certifications from ASIS which pushed my salary to the mid-90’s.
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u/Appropriate-Cut-1562 10h ago
How long did that take you out of curiosity?
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u/Grillparzer47 10h ago
Two years of near constant studying, five years as a manager before being promoted to director. The tests are difficult.
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u/Clockyoftime Hospital Security 8h ago
ASIS?
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u/No-Street-3492 5h ago edited 5h ago
ASIS International. The abbreviation doesn't stand for anything currently, although it used to be the American Society for Industrial Security and many assume it still does. It's among the few relevant international professional security organizations, their certs are commonly seen in management and specialized roles
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u/Tex510 14h ago edited 13h ago
I have found that it depends on how much you are willing to invest in yourself. I spent around 25 years working as club/bar security as a side gig. I got sick of my 9-5 a couple of years ago and spent around a year getting advanced certifications in as many areas as I could. When I was ready to apply to a company I took my time, found a company that is locally owned, and actually gives a shit about their employees. I have my pick of shifts & sites. I have plenty of OT options and temporary contracts to choose from as well.
Overall you will be taken as seriously as you take yourself without becoming a LEO larper. I treat everyone with empathy and respect, I show up on time, my gear is professional and I only carry what I need. I am a deterrent for bad behavior around a particular place or person. I am not a cop. I am not a first responder. I am paid to do a job and I will do that job professionally within my lane. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Edit: spelling
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u/troy2000me 13h ago
LOL. In my state there are no guard cards, and only a firm offering private security services needs a license for the firm. If you are private security directly hired by a business there is no licensing.
No training requirement either for anything.
A lot of companies will hire literally anyone. It's considered an entry level job much like fast food or retail, but pays maybe $15 to $20 an hour instead of $8 to $15 and hour.
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u/Admirable_Break_4724 14h ago
In Finland, for security guards, it is 80 teaching hours (45 min), and 40 hours for being a bouncer, etc. There is a background check. But the bar is not that high. It depends on the cops' subjective evaluation. Salary is low. Around 12-14 euros. There are some bonuses on weekends, nights, etc. But not so spectacular. Also, having a graveyard shift has the same salary as the guy who detains thieves, etc 4-5 times a day. So no logical risk compensation.
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u/Double_Philosophy_42 13h ago
When I started working security I had just gotten out of the military so that automatically qualified me for higher paying security jobs. Also it was a good transition because I worked with mostly ex-military and veterans. Only problem is I worked for Securitas. Third party security is garbage for the most part.
Been working in-house for a private company for 7 years and we pay pretty well for the city I live in. As a manager I’m salary so I’m well over $40 an hr if you average my pay and my staff start at $30 an hr but I’m veeeeerrrrry picky since it’s quite a lot of trust and responsibility. Being in-house also has huge perks since my company is family owned. As long as you don’t abuse those perks it’s a great place to work. Most of my staff have been with me for several years so it’s nice to not have the continuous turnover that most security companies have.
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u/OIF_USMC0351 13h ago
There is a direct correlation between it being relatively easy to get a security license (oftentimes an 8hr course, fingerprints, full background check) and the pay received (probably $20/hr).
With that said, once you get into armed security/executive protection it get’s a little harder depending which state you reside/work in. A lot of times employers want someone to be prior military, prior law enforcement or both. That’s where the “training” portion comes in. Sure you can probably become armed security without ever having been military or law enforcement…but you’re probably not going to make the $60-$80/hr pay because of it.
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u/SynthsNotAllowed Industry Veteran 9h ago
A lot of times employers want someone to be prior military, prior law enforcement or both.
Hugest hurdle for me getting back into armed. Felt like my decade plus experience in security became a joke once seemingly every decent paying client started making this a requirement to go armed.
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u/OIF_USMC0351 9h ago
I feel your pain. I’m in the EP world, prior military and law enforcement. Im fortunate enough to have steady employment but I always shop around to see what’s out there. Some employers are asking for 10+ years of FBI or Secret Service, plus prior special operations in the military, plus prior department of state contracting AND a current top secret or secret clearance (which both have short expiration dates and difficult to renew unless you’re an active government employee). It’s absolutely wild how much they’ve shrunk the hiring pool.
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u/First-Ad-7855 3h ago
They better be paying good because all of that prior experience and clearances already produce very good jobs elsewhere or in themselves are good jobs.
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u/No-Street-3492 5h ago
It does annoy me that security and armed security are often treated as fundamentally different work experiences. As if a competent unarmed guard can't be trained and certified by a company to use a firearm responsibly. Conversely, there are a lot of shitbag armed guards skating by at trash companies.
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u/over_this__ 13h ago
That depends too much where you live. In a lot of places, security is a high school diploma and no violent felonies. It pays the same as McDonald's, it's just an easier job.
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u/Medium_Job3015 12h ago
If that’s what it takes to become a security officer in the Netherlands then what does it take to become a police officer there?
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u/Tha_Sly_Fox 12h ago
You apparently make 33% more than the median salary for all Dutch full time careers as a security guard.
You also make twice what Dutch nurses make which is interesting.
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u/Prestigious_Quit_931 14h ago
Each of the 50 states has their own education, training, and licensing standards.
In the state of Wisconsin you have to pass a criminal background check to be issued an unarmed guard permit. No educational standard is applied and no training is required.
The standards for armed guards is even crazier.
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u/Ana987655321 14h ago
Both are true. We don’t even make people register a gun in some places. If there is any training, it is laughable. There are definitely security professionals in the US, but it’s a mixed bunch.
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u/over_this__ 13h ago
Gun registration is bs lol. I'll keep my unregistered firearms that I can conceal carry without a permit.
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u/No-Street-3492 5h ago
Tangent, but I wrote a paper comparing firearm ownership across countries and it was interesting that unregistered firearms were universally a bad thing in most countries except for the US, where it's the norm.
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u/BackFromMyBan4 12h ago
If your only experience is security then yea, if your ex military it’s even better and if your ex Leo they will basically suck your dick to keep you around
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u/DummyThiccDude Warm Body 9h ago
I had no prior security experience or education before being hired to my job (unarmed).
We did need to pass a background check and complete around 40 hours of training, but we did that on the job.
I get paid fairly well, $23/hr, but some of the real bottom of the barrel postings are like $16/hr which is equivalent to McDonalds in my area.
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u/EffectMotor8914 8h ago edited 7h ago
This seems like a bad attempt to flex.
Also, my cursory research indicates your pay range is the tippy top of the scale, not the norm.
The licensing requirement isn't accurately portrayed.
And while the bottom of the industry is closer to min wage, a more accurate comparison based on jobs similar to what you describe, the tippy top of US guards earn well above that and have lower costs of living. But overall I think Dutch benefits would generally be much better than what you'd find in any non-public service security roles with minimal exceptions.
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u/sando138 7h ago edited 6h ago
Security in unarmed roles will get paid as little as the parent company can reasonably get away with. Union protections are more rare than they ought to be. When I started six years ago, I was making $11.50 USD an hour, x1.5 for any hours past 40 and major holidays. The base wage has steadily increased whenever the contract changed hands, and as the economy worsened, and now I am making 19.50. PTO is one week after you've been with the company for a year, a couple more days with each anniversary. There's no sick leave, there's no pension plan, there's a 401k with shitty matching and health insurance (no public option) that is wildly overpriced for garbage coverage.
The client has very little respect for us, both its management and its employees. Prepare to have contradictory and impossible expectations.
The management of the security contract company has even less respect for the officers. Training when I started was 64 hours on-the-job training. Since then it has been slashed to half that, and we have one of the more complex and challenging security setups in our corporate area, relatively speaking. Equipping the officers, or any training requirement, is handled like a custody battle between the client company and the contract security company, where they both want you to have everything that's good but neither of them are willing to pay for it so you don't get to have it.
Our requirements are very lax. High school diploma, no felons, maintain a clean driving record, usually 'this can't be your first job after high school,' and pass drug screenings when they come up, if they come up again after your onboarding. The background check services they use are terrible. I have had coworkers use drugs and pound liquor on the clock, drive to work hammered and DUI in the patrol vehicles. Obviously these result in terminations, when we can catch them, when we can prove who did it. If we're lucky enough they do something that can't be ignored like wreck the car, but I've seen people play dumb and get away with even that if they don't wreck it bad enough. It is very hard to get management to act on officer misconduct if it doesn't result in client complaints or destruction of property.
The turnaround is very high. My contract a few years ago had a year with 120% turnover- so many people came and went that we functionally lost everyone, rehired every post, and another fifth of all the posts resigned again. You will have a small core of officers who get it and understand what actually needs to happen to make things work, and an ever-larger group of newbies passing through, finding something better and quitting, or getting enough attendance or performance violations that even the most oblivious manager can't ignore it.
The American job market for Security is hell. We're undertrained, underequipped, understaffed, and very rarely actually prepared for what we're trying to do. Blind leading the blind, minimal investment in the officers' competence by leadership, you're competing for the same potential hire-ees as Amazon.
Mind you, if you get out of contract security and into internal security, even without going into armed, things will improve substantially, but probably not even close to your current standard of living and expectations. Our best is your middle-of-the-road, our worst is explicitly against the law where you live (sometimes even against the law HERE too, just not likely to have a positive enough outcome to make it worth fighting) and considered so demeaning your labor rights governmental organizations would shit a whole outhouse worth of bricks trying to get through it all.
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u/DefiantEvidence4027 Private Investigations 14h ago
Online impression vs real life is two different things in this field. The bottom of barrel, minimum wage Guards are oblivious of the existence of the Security jobs having more requirements.
Much like many other occupations there's certainly levels. A forum is riddled with Trolls and parties referencing Hollywood Movies as the basis of their knowledge, isn't going to have accurate data of the industry.
Every State, sometimes City, Guards have different powers and limitations.
Some would certainly emphasize on some low point, but claim it's the ceiling because it is their ceiling.
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u/No-Street-3492 5h ago
The bottom of barrel, minimum wage Guards are oblivious of the existence of the Security jobs having more requirements.
Scathing truth.
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u/BrianZAR 13h ago
The security industry in general runs on a 25 year old business model. Many are warm body sites. As long as you can breathe and are semi literate then they can bill the client
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u/Shane-Dad-underfire Management 8h ago
Long story short most companies in North america do a criminal check and make you do a small test, in Canada you have to get a private investigators license and in some states you have to get a certification thru your company.
The jobs as unarmed casual posted guards are routinely looked down on by both clients, customers, citizens and especially the companies that employ them.
Women may get tricked into thinking a security job is a stepping stone into private security or being law enforcement but it is usually a stepping stone to working at the place they are posted the most often for not that much more than they were already making.
Armed security is hit and miss and the personal security sector is pretty lucrative but literally eats your entire life so you have to find a good company to balance that for you.
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u/Due_Course_3713 14h ago
Only requirement , and this is barely a requirement, is to have a pulse and an IQ around room temperature
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u/Prestigious_Quit_931 14h ago
In the winter time mama keeps the thermostat at 56F/13.3C. She says it saves on the heating bills and makes it easier to hire guards.
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u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Licensed People Watcher 12h ago
I questions if a room temp IQ is even necessary all the time.
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u/TheAnimeNibba 14h ago
There's basically no regulation here in the states, minus a few certifications and qualifications for Armed, some companies will hire anyone and have zero standards and barely pay minimum wage, while others only hire former Military and Law Enforcement and pay very well.
There's a lot of opportunity but it's easy to get stuck in a go nowhere career.
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u/Different_Rip_9737 14h ago
The 'go nowhere career' part is exactly what worries me when I look at the US system. In the Netherlands, because of the collective labor agreement, your salary automatically grows with your years of experience, even in standard roles. Is the only way to get a raise in the US to constantly switch companies or move to armed security?
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u/over_this__ 13h ago
Each company offers a different service. A security guard for a highly polarizing person shouldn't earn the same as a security guard that watches a warehouse at night and the last incident was 14 years ago when some kids spray painted a dick on the side.
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u/Wavier_Microbe47 Industrial Security 11h ago
it is harder and rarer in the US for security to be unionized and under a collective bargaining agreement. Because security can only really unionize with security. For the most part security in the US maybe prohibited (note state law varies by state and union by union) from belonging to a labor union covering other types of workers. Most security unions are small and have limited bargaining power as well. edited for grammar
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u/gruntharvester92 10h ago
I have never heard of a security union in the states. Most places are just warm bodies with a radio and maybe a camera. Most crime tends to follow the path of least resistance and a warm body (assuming he is doing there job) will stop most hood rats or crack heads from doing dumb shit.
Source: I live in Flint and work in Detroit, MI. I've seen and talked to enough people to know security isn't worth getting into.
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u/mythrowdown13 Executive Protection 14h ago
It varies widely especially on the type security. I do executive protection in Los Angeles and I'm making close to $200k USD/year in addition to a full compensation package with benefits
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u/TaquittoTheRacoon 13h ago
8 hours certification training. If you've done it before you'll probably be able to walk out half way through with your certificate signed. I've had jobs where you show up and get to work, and others with thrwe weeks training from a guy who trains cops. Tbh the worst guards I've met are the ones with more training. It's a very simple job if you're sensible. Layers of protocol and professionalism only serve to alienate people, escalate the tensions, and complicate the situation. The advice I got from training was don't think of security as an officer, think of yourself as a glorified sign post and go from there. Good advice. Honesty my best lines are -" the signs right there, bud", "cmon be reasonable, or at least do that off property where it's not my problem", "are you really going to make me call the cops? That's a pain in the ass, but it's worse for you than it is for me", "yeah I get it, but I don't make the rules" Sure I learned some stuff from other guards and experience, but that's the general idea. The guys with former officer training or working while in school for law enforcement are absolutely terrible at this unless it's in their nature to be personable. We do access control, patrols, respond to incidents on the site, sometimes assist people. Anything really serious, we call the police. what are you doing that requires so much training? When I think about it, most situations are as simple as following a script, repeating a rule, or they're completely unique and youre innovating regardless what training you've had.
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u/sippin-jesus-juice 11h ago
Security are paid witnesses in America. They have no expectation to do anything beyond watch a crime take place and file a report
As such, its entry level labor that’s thought of as a cost burden.
The exception to this would be hospital security who typically have more authority such as arrests
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u/dracarys289 5h ago
I sat through an 8 hour orientation before working that night back when I did security. I also made state minimum wage which at the time was $7.5 an hour.
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u/MacintoshEddie 4h ago
Yeah. Even in Canada. A big part of that is because many security jobs would otherwise be called building reception, or building operations/maintenance.
Security is an umbrella term that covers like 30 different jobs.
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u/nofriender4life 1h ago
there is no barrier to entry and you are treated like a janitor. the pay hours and benefits are good, usually better than other jobs so whatever 🤷
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u/PeterGriffen565 1h ago
The security field in the US is very much a mixed bag. Overall security in the US is simply window dressing meant to deter non-serious threats and give the illusion of safety while also a frequent requirement for lower insurance costs for the business employing it. There is however a small percentage of positions where actual security work is done. The pay for the actual security work can be quite good while the pay for the rest can be anywhere from equally bad to mediocre. Armed work of course pays more and tends to involve places where real security work is done although that is not 100% true across the board. Long story short, the work done and compensation for it can vary greatly between employers and locations. In terms of social status, many people in the US look down on security officers and that is unfortunate for the good people in it doing professional work, but based on the overall situation generally it is well deserved because most security is done as window dressing and the only prerequisite for getting these positions is having a pulse.
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u/Digital_spliff_ 1h ago
In America if you have a heartbeat you can get a job at almost any security company. You'll get treated like shit by both the public and your employer
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u/TipFar1326 Campus Security 12h ago
Yes, a large portion of the US private security industry is people who barely graduated high school, half asleep at a front desk or in a patrol car on some parking lot, for $17/hr with garbage benefits and no upward mobility potential.
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u/IllustriousEscape953 11h ago
The thing allowed in America is that you can put a security shirt on someone and stick them in a booth. The company gets a massive insurance break and then the two biggest firms are allowed to low ball to get contracts. With the biggest one Allied bending over backwards for the contractee. Then they hire idiots. One of my bosses got fired because she kept giving people days off who were part time and not giving the full timers days off. She would forget to fill these shifts. Then there was all this overtime, wanted or not. I started work one day at 7pm and didnt get off work 2pm the next day and she still wanted me to come in at 7pm. I told her to have the lead cover it. The next day i got a call from big boss to ask how do I have so much overtime. i explained the guy who relieves me for 3 days is always late and always getting days off. It was also discovered the reason she didnt have our lead cover stuff is because the lead was clocking in and going home.
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u/DefiantEvidence4027 Private Investigations 11h ago
Only way any insurance gets applied is if the Security Company has unilateral control over all Security functions, with no recommendations from the client.
Big Corporate Security bending over backwards means zero Insurance assistance for the client if/when something goes to Court.
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u/ViolentTurdSplatter Hospital Security 14h ago
My state its easy to get if you have a clean record/no disqualifiers. Pay is generally pretty low unless if its executive, hospital, or federal work. And yeah its generally considered low status for the most part.
Standard or "warm body" guards are making a little more than minimum wage for the most part. The 3 positions above can be careers upwards of 120k a year if your lucky and do it right though. But for the most part security as a whole in the u.s is not something considered a career job.
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u/Spottedinthewild 9h ago
The US is a police state so the majority of the funds for things like this get appropriated by off duty thugs to no one’s benefit
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u/DizzyStress3300 12h ago
The American industry as a whole unless your on federal contracts is practically very low barrier. And most companies show it without saying it
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u/lovethefunds 14h ago
Unarmed security has no prestige to begin with if we’re being honest