2026 Edition · An annual reference on what work pays

Security Guards

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area. Estimated employment 19,250.

Data released May 2025 BLS OEWS · SOC 33-9032
Fig. 1 — The wage rule

Where you sit in the distribution

Drag the marker, or type a figure
$44,990 · 50th
$35,78010th
$38,86025th
$44,99050th
$46,42075th
$56,45090th

That is the medianhalf of security guards in Boston earn more.

Table 1 — Adjusted

$44,990 in Boston buys what $41,600 buys across the country as a whole.

Boston's regional price parity is 108.3 — well above the national average — a dollar here buys noticeably less than in the US as a whole. Adjusted figures for other metros are in the nearby-metros table below.

Table 2 — Nearby metros

The same job, elsewhere in Massachusetts

Adjusted figures apply each metro's regional price parity, so the columns are directly comparable.

Metro areaMedianAdjustedRPPvs. Boston
Barnstable Town$45,230$46,00098.4+10.7%
Boston This page$44,990$41,600108.3
Pittsfield$43,860$46,10095.1+11.0%
Springfield$40,340$42,00096.1+1.1%
Worcester$38,430$37,500102.5−9.8%
Amherst Town$37,600$37,500100.2−9.7%

Price parity and difference against Boston are in the full table on wider screens.

Sources

How this page was made

Wage data
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
Price parity
Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
Employment
19,250 employed in this occupation in the metro (BLS estimate; excludes the self-employed).
Occupation
SOC 33-9032, Security Guards. Mapped to our taxonomy as security-guards.

Percentiles are reported exactly as released and are never interpolated between published values. We take no payment from employers, recruiters or anyone else for how any figure is presented.