Pay rates for security guards are difficult to compare across the UK.
Pay rates for security guards are difficult to compare across the UK, let alone compare over time. Many details are anecdotal, and there is a difference between the reputable companies that advertise openly and the proverbial ?run on a kitchen table with a mobile phone? operations. These are the shady operations that under-pay and over-work staff, that come to the attention of bodies such as the Yorkshire and Humberside Low Pay Unit. Ian Harknett of the Batley-based unit says that his office gets calls from the security sector, particularly from young people, and on the subject of long hours. Even JobCentres are advertising security guarding posts for 60 hours a week. The minimum wage has had an impact, he reports, as figures from West Yorkshire JobCentres show: the mean average rate for May 2000 for security guards was œ4.40 an hour, compared with œ4.14 last September and œ3.99 in April 1999. In April 1998, before the minimum wage came in, that average hourly rate was œ3.58, just below the minimum wage. While this survey does leaves out jobs not advertised in JobCentres, and cannot be taken as a total picture of the industry, it is significant that in the last two years guards? average hourly pay rates have gone up 23 per cent. It could be that a few companies are paying very high top of the range rates and pulling up the overall average: the unit reports that the highest rate paid in May 2000 was œ7.14, compared with œ7.28 in September 1999, œ7.10 in April 1999 and œ6 in April 1998. In the unit?s latest May 2000 survey, three-quarters of security guards were paid œ4.69 or less, compared with œ4.50 or less in September 1999, œ4.25 in April 1999 and œ4 in April 1998. The unit has some breakdown of figures by area: Leeds (œ4.42) and York (œ4.14) – both relatively high-wage and high-cost of living areas.
The highest cost of living and wage area of the UK is London: again there is a difference, difficult to compare with concrete figures, between the reputable companies, that recruit openly, to work on contracts for reputable clients, and the less reputable operations that shift bases often, change name and personnel often, and are poor at meeting employer requirements such as paid holidays for full-timers and insurance. The top end of the jobs market is staffing City office receptions and retailers – typical rates here are œ6.20 for a department store, and œ18,000 a year for a West End music store. Reliance Security advertise City of London front of house salaries of œ22,000 a year – œ24,250 (on-target earnings) OTE. Slightly different jobs are at the new EcCel conference centre in Docklands – Group 4 Total Services Ltd are offering from œ16,000 to œ18,928 for customer support officers and Group 4 Total Security œ17,500 to œ20,000 for fire officers. Securicor Custodial Services operate the contract for prisoner escorting across London: vehicle escort officers working at Camden and Feltham can earn œ16,224 for an average 46-hour week (plus œ650 a year for current PCV licence holders) and œ14,108 for an average 40-hour week working at Park Royal and Battersea. Court escort officers at Battersea get œ14,108 for an average 40-hour week, and œ12,344 for an average 35-hour week at Camden-Battersea-Feltham. The custody work involves some Saturday work; the Group 4 work at ExCel is 24-7. At Heathrow Airport, ADI Group are offering starting salaries of œ12-15,000 a year for security staff working shifts, including subsidised accommodation in a part of London where any housing is at a premium (the University of Reading does something similar). There is chronic low pay (or no pay) and underfunding of private security jobs. In Long Eaton, Derbyshire police are appealing for volunteer monitors of the town?s 28 CCTV cameras – that are only watched about half the time. Inspector Bob Swindell says: ?The key times are Friday and Saturday nights and luckily we already have people to cover those shifts.? Even responsible jobs requiring experience come with derisory wages. ?Under a partnership between Staffordshire Police and Burton Town Centre Management Initiative, a need has arisen for a full time co-ordinator to manage the town centre?s security and crime reduction initiatives with the retail and the licensing sector.? So said a July advertisement for someone to take charge of exclusion orders, a radio link, strategy meetings and intelligence gathering. The going rate for this 32.5 hours a week job? œ8,500 a year. Some public and private bodies with budgets to allocate to security simply shy away from taking responsibility for, and spending money on, security if they can avoid it. For instance, Exeter City Council community services committee in June decided against wardens for vandal-ridden parks in the city. Instead they asked police and the county council for solutions to vandalism and under-age drinking. Councillors suggested a Parkwatch scheme whereby residents patrol parks – throwing up many questions of insurance liability, powers of arrest and what patrollers could actually do without being accused of being vigilantes.
