Parking Enforcement Workers vs Security Guards: $47K vs $38K Median Pay

Parking Enforcement Workers vs Security Guards: what changes?

Consider Parking Enforcement Workers if you want to patrol assigned area, such as public parking lot or city streets to issue tickets to overtime parking violators and illegally parked vehicles. Consider Security Guards if you would rather guard, patrol, or monitor premises to prevent theft, violence, or infractions of rules. Both list high school diploma or equivalent; compare training and prior experience separately.

Try this next: Compare three local entry-level postings for Parking Enforcement Workers and Security Guards. List the duties, credentials, prior experience, and paid training each employer actually asks for. Try a supervised class or sample project from each field before choosing a program.

BLS 2025 wages and 2025–2035 projections. National medians are not starting offers. Occupation size is not a count of vacancies. View the BLS data.

Compare the practical differences

Parking Enforcement Workers

National median pay (2025): $46,730
Route into the job: High school diploma or equivalent; One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing
Prior related experience: No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.
Training and licensing: One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing.
Work to investigate: Enter and retrieve information pertaining to vehicle registration, identification, and status, using hand-held computers.
Annual openings (2025–2035): 800

Know before you choose

BLS projects employment to shrink 1.1% from 2025 to 2035. Openings can still occur when existing workers leave.

See the full Parking Enforcement Workers brief

Security Guards

National median pay (2025): $38,020
Route into the job: High school diploma or equivalent; One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing
Prior related experience: No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.
Training and licensing: One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing.
Work to investigate: Lock doors and gates of entrances and exits to secure buildings.
Annual openings (2025–2035): 156,000

Know before you choose

BLS projects essentially flat employment (0.9%) through 2035. Annual openings mostly reflect replacement, not a rapidly expanding field.

See the full Security Guards brief

How the national numbers differ

Security Guards has the edge on annual openings

Security Guards is at 156,000 annual openings, compared with 800 annual openings for Parking Enforcement Workers.

Parking Enforcement Workers has the edge on median pay

Parking Enforcement Workers is at $46,730, compared with $38,020 for Security Guards.

Security Guards has the edge on projected growth

Security Guards is at 0.9% projected growth, compared with -1.1% projected growth for Parking Enforcement Workers.

29/ 100

Parking Enforcement Workers

51.8/ 100

Security Guards

Each available metric is ranked from 0 to 100 against the careers on ChooseField. The weighted average uses this profile: pay 30%, growth 25%, openings 30%, preparation level 15%. Missing values are not scored as zero; their weights are redistributed across available metrics. Occupation size has zero weight: employment is not accessible vacancies. Preparation categories do not measure admission difficulty or years without earnings. The score summarizes national measures; local opportunities and personal fit still need separate consideration.

Detailed evidence

Parking Enforcement Workers vs Security Guards

Dimension	Parking Enforcement Workers	Security Guards
Median pay (2025)	$46,730	$38,020
Pay percentile	22.5 percentile	8.3 percentile
Projected growth (2025–2035)	-1.1%	0.9%
Annual openings (2025–2035)	800	156,000
2025 employment	9,400	1,294,300
How you qualify	High school diploma or equivalent; One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing	High school diploma or equivalent; One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing
O*NET preparation group	Job Zone 2	Job Zone 2
Related work experience	No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.	No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.
On-the-job training	One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing.	One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing.

The table reports national benchmarks and reviewed work descriptions. It does not rate personal suitability, job security, or physical safety.

Read Parking Enforcement Workers brief Read Security Guards brief

Parking Enforcement Workers vs Security Guards: what changes?

The facts most likely to affect your decision

Parking Enforcement Workers

Security Guards

How the national numbers differ

Security Guards has the edge on annual openings

Parking Enforcement Workers has the edge on median pay

Security Guards has the edge on projected growth

Parking Enforcement Workers vs Security Guards

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