Security Guards in Florida
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,026
after federal, FICA and Florida tax
Tax takes
$4,874
13.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,990
Florida costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Florida — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$35,900
Kept after tax
$31,026
Worth in national money
$29,990
State rank
41
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for security guards is on the low side in Florida. The middle earner gets $35,900. That is 41 of 51 states, and about 5.58% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 493 occupations Florida publishes, security guards lands at 445. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Florida is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $35,900 the take-home is $31,026; in national-average money that behaves like $29,990. The average comes to $37,610, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For security guards, Florida sits in the lower band at $35,900, ranking 41 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 5.58%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Florida, this work ranks 445 of 493 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Take-home for security guards in Florida, on $35,900, is $31,026; deflated by the state's price level, $29,990. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $37,610 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Security Guards
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,090 |
| This salary | $35,900 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Florida | $31,026 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,026 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,937 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $35,900 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,343 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 103 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Florida earn less than $35,900. The published range is $29,470 up to $46,090, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $31,026 take-home in Florida comes from $35,900. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 445 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $29,990 uses one figure for the whole of Florida. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 445.
- Reported values are medians; for security guards in Florida the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $29,470 to $46,090. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $31,026, from $35,900, assumes a single Florida filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 445 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $29,990, worked from $35,900, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Florida address, on work sitting at 445 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $37,610 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $29,470 at the tenth percentile, $46,090 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Florida run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $29,990 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $31,026 of this wage reaches your account, because Florida takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Florida is $37,610. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($29,470 to $46,090) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Florida rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Florida's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $29,990 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Florida levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $31,026 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.