Occupation / job
Protective Service Workers, All Other
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
At $42,540 against $50,020, this pays $623 a month less than the typical American job. Below the midpoint but within reach of it: the spread and the floor below decide whether that description flatters Protective Service Workers, All Other or not.
81,500 people are employed as Protective Service Workers, All Other. At that scale every large metro has a real market, and the difference between a good year and a bad one is usually which employer you are at rather than whether anyone is hiring.
These roles suit people who can be reliably present and observant for a whole shift, in work where nothing happening is the intended outcome.
No verified preparation time is on file for Protective Service Workers, All Other. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
A quarter earn below $35,420 and a quarter above $54,910: a 1.6x ratio, $19,490 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.
A quarter of Protective Service Workers, All Other earn under $35,420, which is $14,600 short of the $50,020 national midpoint. Assume you start there and check whether the arithmetic still works.
Avoid it if rotating shifts damage you. The sleep disruption outlasts the career for a meaningful share of people who do this.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 81,500 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
A 1.6x ratio is the most common shape in this data: some room to move, none of it quick. Read $42,540 as where you might be after years in Protective Service Workers, All Other, and $35,420 as where you would start.
In cash terms the middle half of Protective Service Workers, All Other runs $35,420 to $54,910 — $19,490 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $42,540.
Between $35,420 and $54,910 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $42,540. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $12,370; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $19,490.
It is $7,120 from $42,540 down to $35,420 but $12,370 up to $54,910. When a range leans this far upward, the interesting question is what puts someone in the top half, because the money is disproportionately there.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Protective Service Workers, All Other is $20.45 an hour. The quarters sit at $17.02 and $26.39, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Employers reported these wages for people already working as Protective Service Workers, All Other. The self-employed are excluded, so $42,540 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Protective Service Workers, All Other, the hourly figure is $42,540 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