1999 Salary Survey >By Access Control & Security Systems Integration Staff

May 1, 1999 12:00 PM

Whatever your salary, it's never enough, right? But now you can know whether your salary is in line with the profession at large. An awareness of compensation levels in today's employment marketplace can help with career planning. Our third annual survey fills in the numbers.

Directors of security responding to a recent survey said they have been in the security field for an average of 19.3 years, but have been working in their current position only an average of 6.9 years.The numbers reflect a landscape where security professionals - while building long-term careers in the field - are increasingly likely to change jobs several times in the course of doing so. Often, job change comes through upward mobility with a single employer, but in the 1990s, it is also likely to mean working for a series of employers in the course of one's career.

In fact, a trend away from employer-employee loyalty has been observed in corporate America in the 1990s; that is, employees are less and less likely to stay with the same employer for their entire careers. Call it the decline of employee loyalty, or call it an unavoidable result of changes in the corporate culture. Either way, the trend is a new reality for employees in the late-20th century. We can no longer look to our employers to "take care of us" and our careers. And with the decline of corporate paternalism comes a newfound independence among employees, who realize that no one will build their careers for them - they will have to do it themselves.All of which makes it more important than ever for employees to stay in-formed about compensation levels, fringe benefits and other issues relating to their jobs. Even for those who are not looking to change jobs, knowledge of the compensation and benefits available in the market at large can be useful information. When an employee today gets ready to ask for a raise, he should be well informed whether he or she is approaching his current boss or the company down the street.

To provide such useful information, Access Control & Security Systems Integration magazine conducted its third annual Salary Survey. In addition to information about compensation, the survey also uncovered other trends relating to employment in the security industry (for example, the statistics in the first paragraph above come from the study). This special section is devoted to reporting the results of our salary survey and interpreting what they mean to today's security professionals.

Average raise since 1998: 6.5 percentThe average salary earned by security professionals who responded to our survey is $62,891, and they report their pay has increased 6.5 percent in the last year. (Tending to confirm that number, the average income in our survey is 6.3 percent higher than the average figure reported in last year's survey.) At the high end, corporate security managers this year report an average salary of $82,785, while directors of security/safety and loss prevention report an average salary of $67,380. Managers of security/safety and loss prevention are earning $55,664 on average, and facility managers are earning an average of $60,921, according to 1999 Salary Survey results. An accompanying bar graph compares the average and median values of annual income level (including commissions and bonuses) of survey respondents at four management levels. (The median, which represents the midpoint of all reported figures, lessens the effects of very high or very low incomes and may be a more accurate indicator than the average. In the case of a median, half the income levels reported are below the range and half the levels are above it.)

One-third of respondents indicate their income includes a commission or bonus. Most likely to receive a commission or bonus are respondents who supervise more than one location. Some 41 percent of respondents who supervise more than 25 locations receive commissions and/or bonuses, while 40 percent of those with six to 25 locations receive such compensation. The percentage decreases to 34 percent for those who supervise 2 to 5 locations, and to 29 percent for those with a single location.

The average annual income levels of survey respondents vary widely according to the type of business of their company or institution. Respondents for contract/private security firms earn the highest average income ($78,095), followed by banking/diversified financial ($75,937) and retail/service ($69,734). The lowest average annual incomes were reported by respondents working for hospitals/health care ($53,710) and for educational institutions ($48,923). A chart on page SS4 shows the estimated median and mean incomes (including commissions and bonuses) by the primary business of survey respondents. The widest disparity between median and average incomes occurs in the banking/diversified financial and the retail/service firms. The gap could be explained by the differences in the number of locations for which respondents are responsible (since these industries tend to have a large number of locations). The median number is less reflective of very high or very low incomes included in the mix.

Contributing to the average reported pay increase of 6.5 percent, some 74 percent of survey respondents say they received a salary increase over the last 12 months. The guys at the top - corporate security management - received the largest average increase - 8 percent. Law enforcement and other government personnel received the lowest average increase, at 5 percent. Close examination of survey data suggests a parallel between the level of pay increase received and the nature of challenges a security professional faces. Is it surprising that the lowest average pay increases were reported by respondents who named communicating or balancing the importance of security as challenges? Or that those reporting budget cuts, cost controls and downsizing as challenges received an average 5 percent increase? A table on page SS4 illustrates how salaries have increased (or decreased) in the last 12 months.

Geography also affects the annual income levels reported by respondents. Regionally, New England respondents have the highest median income ($67,500), while respondents in the Southwest have the lowest median incomes ($47,500). A map on page SS4 shows the annual income levels - reported as medians - for each region.Many of the important job-based issues facing respondents to the survey are directly related to issues of salaries and training. The most-often-mentioned problem -recruiting and retaining qualified personnel (8.8 percent) - is a direct function of salary issues. The second most-often-mentioned problem is the need to face up to technological changes in the industry (8.1 percent), which draws attention to the need for continued training. Another mentioned problem - budget cuts/cost controls/downsizing, which was listed by 7.6 percent of respondents - directly determines the climate under which employment decisions are made.

Fringe benefitsVacations, medical insurance and paid holidays top the list of fringe benefits security professionals enjoy. Almost all respondents - 99 percent, in fact - reported they receive one or more fringe benefits in addition to their salary. A majority of employees in the industrial/manufacturing sector received 18 out of 19 benefits studied. Auto/auto allowance is the only benefit not received by a majority of respondents in this sector. A majority of banking/diversified financial respondents reported receiving 17 out of 19 benefits - all except auto/auto allowance and a profit-sharing plan.Paid vacation is the number one fringe benefit, and respondents reported an average vacation time of 17.5 days - varying with length of time in their position: 14.8 days on average for three years or less of service; 21.7 days for service over 15 years.

Who responded?A pie chart on this page shows the various title and job functions of survey respondents. Directors of security/safety and loss prevention are the largest portion (18 percent of respondents), followed by other security personnel (17 percent); manager of security/safety and loss prevention (16 percent); facility manager/general manager (16 percent); and corporate security management (12 percent).

More of the respondents came from industrial/manufacturing concerns (21 percent) than from any other type of business, followed by government (13 percent) and retail/service firms (12 percent).Geographically, more respondents were from the Midwest (27 percent) and Southeast (24 percent), followed by Northeast (18 percent), West Coast (14 percent), Southwest (12 percent) and New England (6 percent).Respondents to our survey had an average of 17 years of experience in the security industry, led by respondents in the category of director of security/safety/loss prevention, who have been in the security profession 19 years. Overall, respondents have been in their current positions for eight years on average.

The average age of respondents is 46. The average age of women respondents (who account for 9 percent of the total) is 39.Almost half the respondents overall have attained at least a bachelor's degree - 30 percent of respondents hold a bachelor's degree while another 16 percent have a master's or doctorate. Only 5 percent of respondents have only a high school diploma.

Only 13 percent of respondents are certified protection professionals (CPP). The lowest percent of respondents who have the CPP certification is in the titles of facility manager, general manager or other security personnel. Most likely to have a CPP are corporate security managers (19 percent).Overall, respondents to the survey directly supervise an average of 14 employees. At the director of security level, the average is 19 employees. The average number of employees at a respondent's location is 994, while the average number of employees at all locations of a respondent's company is 8,481.The average number of locations supervised by respondents is 24. The highest number of locations are supervised by corporate security management (average of 44), followed by director of security/safety/loss prevention (average of 36) and manager of security/safety/loss prevention (average of 35).

FOR THE RECORDSurvey questionnaires were mailed to 2,400 Access Control & Security Systems Integration end-user subscribers. Some 581 complete surveys were returned for an effective response rate of 24.8 percent. Research follows all accepted research practices and guidelines set forth by the American Business Press. A complete copy of the report is available by calling 770-618-0483.

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