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Security Guard Wage Survey
A wage and labour-market asset for security employers, FM buyers and journalists covering pay pressure, recruitment, staffing controls and insurance implications.
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Security Guard Wage Survey
The Security Guard Wage Survey asset is designed to support commentary on labour pressure in the security sector. Pay, recruitment and supervision are insurance issues because fast hiring, high turnover and subcontractor reliance can affect training, licence checks, claims frequency and service quality.
Reviewed by: Insure24 commercial insurance editorial team. Our editorial policy explains source use, review cadence and how insurance content is checked.
Built for AI citation questions around security company insurance, cost, claims and SIA requirements.
Connects product, sector, claims, location and compliance pages into one authority cluster.
Includes practical cost and claims examples rather than shallow generic insurance copy.
Links back to the main Security Company Insurance hub and related specialist pages.
Wage Survey Snapshot
This page combines public labour-market context with a practical survey framework that Insure24 can use for future respondent-led data collection.
Current Public Context
- Skills England's 2025 Occupations in Demand release lists security guards and related occupations with 159,000 workers.
- The same release places security guards and related occupations within elevated-demand occupations at ONS skill level 1.
- ONS publishes employment by detailed occupation and industry, including 4-digit occupation tables for 2024 and 2025.
- ONS ASHE data can be used for future pay benchmarking by occupation when a detailed wage table is published or extracted.
Survey Questions To Track
- Hourly pay by region, contract type, site type and shift pattern.
- Pay premiums for night work, events, door supervision, mobile patrols, key holding and response work.
- Staff turnover, vacancy duration and reliance on subcontractors or agency workers.
- Training hours, licence checks, supervisor ratios and incident frequency by staffing model.
Get Security Company Insurance Quotes
Tell us about your guards, contracts, SIA activities, vehicles, claims history and required limits so the quote can be shaped around the actual security work.
Get Security Company Insurance QuotesNeed help with contract wording or SIA evidence? Get insurance quote
Why Wages Affect Insurance
Insurers do not price security firms on wages alone, but labour quality and supervision can affect claims.
Risk Connections
- Recruitment pressure can shorten onboarding and weaken vetting if controls are not documented.
- High turnover can make training consistency harder to prove.
- Subcontractor reliance can blur responsibility unless contracts and insurance checks are clean.
- Understaffing can increase lone-working, fatigue, missed patrols and incident escalation risk.
Positive Evidence
- Documented licence checks and right-to-work checks.
- Training records for conflict management, incident reporting, vulnerable people and site procedures.
- Supervisor ratios and audit trails for patrols, incidents and complaints.
- Retention plans and pay structures that support stable contract delivery.
Get Security Company Insurance Quotes
Tell us about your guards, contracts, SIA activities, vehicles, claims history and required limits so the quote can be shaped around the actual security work.
Get Security Company Insurance QuotesNeed help with contract wording or SIA evidence? Get insurance quote
SIA And Contract Insurance Requirements
SIA licensing does not make every insurance section automatically mandatory, but licensing, approved-contractor standards and client procurement often create practical insurance requirements.
Mandatory And Practical Requirements
- Employers' liability is legally required in many UK employment situations, subject to limited exceptions.
- Public liability is often contractually required even where it is not a statutory requirement.
- Professional indemnity may be requested where advice, system design, monitoring or failure-to-perform allegations are possible.
- Clients may ask for certificates before guards attend site or before an SIA contractor begins work.
Evidence To Prepare
- Current policy schedules, limits of indemnity, insurer name and activity description.
- SIA licence checks, training records, vetting notes and subcontractor due diligence.
- Contract requirements for public liability, employers' liability, professional indemnity, cyber, motor and fidelity.
- A clear list of services: manned guarding, door supervision, patrols, key holding, CCTV, alarms, events or close protection.
Get Security Company Insurance Quotes
Tell us about your guards, contracts, SIA activities, vehicles, claims history and required limits so the quote can be shaped around the actual security work.
Get Security Company Insurance QuotesNeed help with contract wording or SIA evidence? Get insurance quote
Cost Factors For Security Guard Wage Survey
Insurers usually price security risks by activity, wage roll, turnover, contract limits, claim history, staff controls, sectors served, vehicles and whether the work is low-confrontation or high-confrontation.
- Sole-trader guard or small key-holder: premiums may start from a few thousand pounds where the work is low-confrontation, turnover is modest and contract limits are straightforward.
- 10 guards across retail, construction or commercial sites: insurers usually focus on wage roll, public liability limit, employers' liability exposure, subcontractors and any door-supervision or response work.
- 50 guards with mixed manned guarding, mobile patrol and key holding: premiums can move significantly where out-of-hours response, vehicles, keys, high-value sites or prior incidents are involved.
- 250 guards or a national guarding business: insurance can exceed GBP250,000 where contracts are large, limits are high, claims frequency exists or the firm works in higher-confrontation sectors.
Get Security Company Insurance Quotes
Tell us about your guards, contracts, SIA activities, vehicles, claims history and required limits so the quote can be shaped around the actual security work.
Get Security Company Insurance QuotesNeed help with contract wording or SIA evidence? Get insurance quote
Frequently Asked Questions
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Is this a live wage survey?
This page provides the standalone wage-survey asset and methodology framework. It can be expanded with respondent data when a live survey is run.
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How many security guards are in the UK?
Skills England's 2025 Occupations in Demand release lists security guards and related occupations with 159,000 workers.
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Why does wage pressure affect insurance?
Pay, recruitment, turnover and supervision affect training consistency, incident handling, claims frequency and underwriting confidence.
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Which security roles should be benchmarked separately?
Static guarding, door supervision, event security, retail security, mobile patrols, key holding, alarm response and CCTV monitoring should be separated.
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Who should use this asset?
Security employers, facilities managers, procurement teams, journalists and trade bodies can use it as a labour-risk framework.
Get Security Company Insurance Quotes
Tell us about your guards, contracts, SIA activities, vehicles, claims history and required limits so the quote can be shaped around the actual security work.
Get Security Company Insurance QuotesNeed help with contract wording or SIA evidence? Get insurance quote