2026 Edition · An annual reference on what work pays

Security Guards

Dalton, GA metropolitan area. Estimated employment 130.

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
$37,820 · 50th
$26,08010th
$29,36025th
$37,82050th
$38,68075th
$46,09090th

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

Table 1 — Adjusted

$37,820 in Dalton buys what $42,100 buys across the country as a whole.

Dalton's regional price parity is 89.8 — well below the national average — the nominal figure understates local buying power considerably. Adjusted figures for other metros are in the nearby-metros table below.

Table 2 — Nearby metros

The same job, elsewhere in Georgia

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

Metro areaMedianAdjustedRPPvs. Dalton
Hinesville$48,780$51,90093.9+23.4%
Dalton This page$37,820$42,10089.8
Rome$36,430$40,40090.2−4.0%
Gainesville$35,360$36,50096.8−13.2%
Atlanta$35,150$35,100100.1−16.5%
Savannah$34,810$36,60095.2−13.1%
Warner Robins$34,530$36,80093.8−12.5%
Macon$33,940$38,30088.5−8.9%

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

Fig. 2 — Five-year trend

Nominal against real

The same median, once as published and once restated in 2025 dollars.

30k35k40k45k 20212022202320242025
Nominal, as published Real, in 2025 dollars US$ thousands

Published pay rose 4.0% over the five years to 2025. Adjusted for inflation it fell 12.5% — prices rose faster than pay since 2021. The two lines meet at the right edge by construction, since 2025 is the base year.

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.
Inflation
Real figures deflate by CPI-U annual averages (BLS, all items, US city average).
Employment
130 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.