Last Friday, a security company owner in Memphis told me he had 14 open guard positions and zero qualified applicants. Not a few. Zero.
He’s been in business for 11 years. He’s never seen anything like this.
“I’ve got contracts I can’t fill,” he said. “Clients are calling me every week asking when I’m going to staff their posts. I don’t have an answer for them.”
He’s not alone. Across Memphis and the surrounding area, private security companies are fighting the worst labor shortage in recent memory. The reasons aren’t complicated. They’re just painful.
The Wage Problem
Here’s the math that’s crushing the industry right now.
The median hourly wage for a security guard in the United States is about $14 per hour, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In Memphis, most unarmed guard positions pay between $12 and $15 an hour. Armed guards do a little better, usually $15 to $18.
Now look at what else is hiring in Memphis.
Amazon’s distribution center in Olive Branch, just across the state line in Mississippi, starts at $15 an hour with signing bonuses. FedEx, which runs its global hub at Memphis International Airport along with massive sorting facilities across the region, has been bumping pay and offering incentives to attract seasonal and full-time workers. Warehouses along Airways Boulevard are posting $16-17 an hour for forklift operators with zero experience required.
Fast food? McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell locations across Memphis are advertising $15 an hour with signing bonuses of $200-500. A Burger King on Lamar Avenue had a banner last week offering $15.50 plus a $300 bonus after 90 days.
Tennessee’s minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour, the federal floor. The state has never set its own minimum above the federal rate. That number hasn’t mattered in practice for a while now because the market has moved past it. Nobody’s hiring anyone for $7.25 in Memphis in 2021.
The problem is that security guard pay hasn’t moved with the market. And the job is harder.
Why Would Anyone Choose Guard Work?
Think about it from the applicant’s perspective.
Option A: Stand in a parking lot for eight hours overnight, possibly alone, possibly in a dangerous neighborhood like Frayser or Raleigh, for $13 an hour. You need to complete 48 hours of state-mandated training before you start. You need to pass a background check. You need to register with the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance. The work is boring when it’s not scary, and scary when it’s not boring.
Option B: Drive for DoorDash or Uber Eats on your own schedule, no training required, and clear $15-20 an hour on a busy night. Or go work at an Amazon warehouse where they’ll hand you $15 an hour on day one with benefits kicking in almost immediately.
People aren’t stupid. They’re choosing Option B.
The Training Bottleneck
Tennessee requires 48 hours of training for unarmed security guards before they can work a post. Armed guards need additional firearms training and certification. The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance processes roughly 4,200 new guard registrations each year statewide.
That 48-hour requirement isn’t unreasonable on its own. Guards need to know use-of-force laws, emergency procedures, report writing, and basic first aid. The training makes sense.
What it also does is create a filter. A person considering security work has to invest a week of unpaid training time before they earn a single dollar. Meanwhile, Amazon will put them on the floor tomorrow. No training period. No waiting for a state registration to process.
Some security companies pay for their guards’ training. Many don’t. The ones that don’t are finding it nearly impossible to attract applicants who have other options.
The Great Resignation Hits Security
The term “Great Resignation” started showing up in news coverage a few months ago to describe the wave of workers quitting their jobs across every industry in America. The security guard business is getting hit particularly hard.
Guards who’ve been working $12-13 an hour posts for years are walking out. They’re going to warehouse jobs, delivery driving, and retail positions that now pay equal or better wages with less risk and more predictable schedules. One company owner told me he lost six guards in May alone. Four of them went to FedEx. One went to Amazon. One just stopped showing up.
“I called him three times,” the owner said about the no-show. “He finally texted me back and said he got a job at Target for $15 an hour. Said he was tired of working overnight shifts in sketchy locations for less money.”
I can’t argue with that logic. Neither can the owner, honestly.
What Companies Are Doing (and Not Doing)
Some Memphis security companies are raising wages. The ones that can afford to, anyway.
Shield of Steel, the veteran-owned firm on Lamar Avenue, has been able to retain guards better than most. Their veteran culture and benefits package give them an edge in a market where most companies offer bare-minimum compensation. Even they’re feeling the squeeze, though. No company is immune when Amazon is throwing money around a few miles down the road.
Securitas and Allied Universal, the two national giants that dominate the Memphis contract security market, are struggling just as much as the small local firms. Maybe more. Large contract security companies operate on thin margins, and their corporate structures don’t always allow for fast wage adjustments at the local level. A branch manager in Memphis can’t just decide to bump pay by $3 an hour without approval from regional and national leadership.
I’ve heard from multiple sources that both companies have been unable to fully staff several major contracts in the Memphis area. Posts going unfilled. Shifts running short. Clients getting frustrated.
The smaller local companies have more flexibility on wages, but less financial cushion. A five-person security company that raises hourly pay from $12 to $15 has to raise its contract rates accordingly. Some clients will absorb the increase. Others won’t.
Contract Rates Are Going Up
Which brings us to the money side of this equation.
Security companies that want to keep guards have to pay more. To pay more, they have to charge more. Contract rates for unarmed guard services in Memphis have gone up roughly 15-20% since the start of the year. Armed guard contracts have jumped even more.
A standard unarmed guard post that billed at $19-20 per hour in January is now running $22-24. Armed posts that went for $26-28 are pushing $30-35.
Clients are grumbling, but most of them are paying. The alternative is no guard at all, and with carjackings and property crime surging across Memphis this summer, having an empty post isn’t an option most businesses want to consider.
“I told my clients straight up,” one company owner said. “I can give you a guard at $24 an hour, or I can give you nobody. Those are the options right now.”
The Numbers Don’t Add Up
Here’s what worries me about the long-term picture.
TDCI processes about 4,200 new guard registrations annually in Tennessee. That sounds like a decent pipeline until you look at the other side. Industry turnover for security guards nationally runs somewhere between 100% and 300% annually, depending on whose estimate you trust. That means companies are losing guards as fast or faster than they’re replacing them.
In Memphis specifically, the logistics corridor is pulling workers away from every low-wage industry. FedEx is the largest employer in the metro area. Amazon has been building fulfillment and distribution centers across DeSoto County in Mississippi, right on Memphis’s southern border. Warehouses along Airways Boulevard and in the Lamar Avenue industrial corridor need bodies constantly.
These employers don’t require background checks, state registration, or 48 hours of training. They pay the same or more. And the work, while physically demanding, doesn’t involve standing alone outside a Hickory Hill strip mall at 2 a.m.
The security industry is competing for the same labor pool and losing.
So What Happens Next?
Contract rates will keep climbing. Companies that refuse to raise wages will lose their guards to companies that do, or to Amazon, or to DoorDash. Clients will pay more for security services or they’ll go without.
Some companies will cut corners. They’ll staff posts with undertrained or unregistered guards. They’ll skip the 48-hour training requirement and hope nobody notices. This is dangerous and it’s already happening. TDCI doesn’t have the enforcement resources to catch every violation, and the pressure to fill posts is enormous.
The companies that survive this crunch will be the ones that figure out how to attract and keep workers in a market where a dozen other employers are offering the same money or better. That means higher wages, yes. It also means better scheduling, paid training, health benefits, and treating guards like professionals instead of warm bodies.
Shield of Steel (2682 Lamar Ave, Memphis, TN 38114; 202-222-2225) has shown that a strong company culture built around veteran hiring and genuine respect for the workforce can reduce turnover. They’ve still lost people — everyone has — but their retention numbers look better than industry average. That model is worth studying, even if it can’t be copied exactly.
The staffing crisis isn’t going away this summer. It probably won’t go away this year. The security companies that come out the other side intact will be the ones that adapted their business models to a labor market that has permanently shifted under their feet.
Everyone else will be posting “Now Hiring” signs until the ink runs out.
Sarah Chen covers market trends and industry analysis for Memphis Security Insider. Contact her at sarah@memphissecurityinsider.com.