Compared with the local labor market
Lead Security Guard pay vs. California
Across all employers in California, the median wage for Security Guards — about 199,480 people — is $43,240. Veterans Affairs pays a median base salary of $48,176 for this role, 11% above that figure — about the 77th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Veterans Affairs sits in the local pay range
$36,010
$37,180
$43,240
$46,760
$57,880
Veterans Affairs median · $48,176
The bar is the range of annual wages for Security Guards across every employer in California, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Veterans Affairs’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. Veterans Affairs’s median base salary is 27% above that national figure, about the 77th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$30,210
$35,210
$38,020
$46,200
$58,840
Veterans Affairs median · $48,176
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 California range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Veterans Affairs is $62,818, 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 departments
This role across California
Lead Security Guard is held in 2 California departments. In Veterans Affairs, the median of $62,818 ranks #1 of 2.
Highest-paying departments for this role
Median total compensation for the Lead Security Guard role in other Californiadepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.