City of Los Angeles / Security Officer
Role across City of Los Angeles
Security Officer
Carry out the duties of this position in support of the agency's public mission.
849 people hold the Security Officer role across 6 departments in City of Los Angeles, with a median total compensation of $103,554. Among 16 jurisdictions where this role is reported, City of Los Angeles ranks #1 by median pay.
- Employees
- 849
- Median pay
- $103,554
- Departments
- 6
- Cross-jurisdiction
- #1 of 16
Compared with the local labor market
Security Officer pay vs. the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area
Across all employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, the median wage for Security Guards — about 83,280 people — is $40,030. City of Los Angeles pays a median base salary of $57,485 for this role, 44% above that figure — above the 90th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where City of Los Angeles sits in the local pay range
The bar is the range of annual wages for Security Guards across every employer in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows City of Los Angeles’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Security Guards — about 1,283,470 people — is $38,020. City of Los Angeles’s median base salary is 51% above that national figure, about the 88th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 738 of 849 people in this role paid at least $25,000 in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at City of Los Angeles is $103,554, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare jurisdictions
Security Officer pay in other jurisdictions
Where Security Officers are paid most
Median total compensation for comparable Security Officer roles in other jurisdictions (highest first). Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not by identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for this role.
Within City of Los Angeles
Departments with this role
Largest City of Los Angeles departments for this role
Departments in City of Los Angeles employing the most people in this role. Each bar links to that department’s page for the role.