Occupation / job
First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
A $55,940 midpoint puts First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers $493 a month ahead of the $50,020 typical American job. Real, but small enough that a change of employer or metro would move it as much as the occupation itself does.
Employment stands at 81,480. First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers is common enough to be recruited for continuously and specific enough that the experience travels — the combination that makes changing employer a working pay rise.
Supervising protective service suits people who can hold a crew to a standard when the consequence of slipping is somebody’s safety rather than a missed target.
We carry no verified training length for First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter earn below $45,030 and a quarter above $71,950: a 1.6x ratio, $26,920 between the ends. That is an ordinary working spread, which also means experience and location explain most of it and there is no shortcut through the middle.
The bottom quarter of First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers earns under $45,030, which is within $4,990 of the $50,020 typical American job. An occupation whose 25th percentile is level with the national middle has an unusually forgiving downside.
Avoid it if you could not discipline someone you worked beside for years, which is most of what the stripe actually costs.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 81,480 is a headcount of the employed, which is a numerator without a denominator — everyone who qualified and never got hired is missing from it, and we will not estimate them to complete a percentage.
What the spread tells you
1.6x between $45,030 and $71,950 is the ordinary shape of an occupation where experience and region both matter and neither dominates. $55,940 is a fair expectation by mid-career, not on day one.
In cash terms the middle half of First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers runs $45,030 to $71,950 — $26,920 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $55,940.
Between $45,030 and $71,950 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $55,940. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $16,010; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $26,920.
The climb from $55,940 to $71,950 is $16,010, against $10,910 down to $45,030. Rather more of the range sits above the midpoint than below it, so the realistic upside in First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers is larger than the realistic downside.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers is $26.89 an hour. The quarters sit at $21.64 and $34.59, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $55,940 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers, the hourly figure is $55,940 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else