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Public service · Helping & Teaching

Security guard: what the job actually is

Watching, patrolling and controlling access to a place, with a licence from the province and a lot of time spent waiting for nothing to happen.

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Security guard: quick facts

Security guard salary in Ontario: the median pay is $20.00 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is limited. The job usually needs a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training.

Median pay in Ontario
$20.00 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$17.95 to $34.87 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Limited
People working in it in Ontario
36,500
Usually needs
Usually a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 64410. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Protecting people, property and information by being present: patrolling, watching cameras, checking who comes in, writing reports, and responding when something happens.
  • In Ontario, security guards are licensed by the Ministry of the Solicitor General under the Private Security and Investigative Services Act. The Ontario government's page says you must be 18 or older, legally entitled to work in Canada, free of convictions for the offences listed in Ontario Regulation 37/08 unless pardoned, and must complete basic training and pass a test before you get a licence.
  • Most of the job is observation and paperwork. Actual confrontations are rare, and the skill that matters is de-escalation: talking people down, not stepping in.
  • Guards work in many places: retail stores, office towers, construction sites, hospitals, events and gated properties. Each has its own routine and its own rules.
  • Job Bank's Ontario outlook for the group is Limited. It says employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions, though a moderate number of positions will open as people retire.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 6:45 — Arrive at a shopping centre or an office tower, collect your radio and your keys, and read the handover notes from the night shift.
  2. 7:00 — Walk the full patrol route and check doors, loading docks and stairwells. Everything is where it should be.
  3. 8:30 — Sit at the front desk and check people in. Most are friendly and some are in a hurry.
  4. 10:00 — A visitor refuses to sign in. You explain the rule, politely, three times, then call a supervisor.
  5. 11:30 — Watch the camera wall. Nine screens, nothing moving. This is most of the job.
  6. 12:30 — Lunch. You eat at your post, because you cannot leave it.
  7. 14:00 — Respond to a fire alarm. It is a false alarm, but you follow the procedure to the letter because the one time it is not matters.
  8. 15:00 — Write up the alarm in your notebook and the incident report, with times and facts only. Reports are what protect you later.
  9. 17:00 — Hand over to the evening guard with everything you saw, and go home, where nobody asks if anything happened because, mostly, it did not.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You are calm, reliable and observant, and you can stay alert when little is happening.
  • You can talk to people politely and firmly, including when they are angry.
  • You want a job you can start soon after turning 18, with a short training course and a test rather than years of school.
  • You are interested in policing, criminology or law and want a first job in the field.
  • You are comfortable with shift work and being on your own for long stretches.
You may hate this if
  • You dislike night shifts and irregular schedules. Security works around the clock, and many entry-level positions are nights, weekends and holidays.
  • Pay matters a lot to you. The pay is hourly and modest next to the skilled trades on this site, and the range for the group is narrow at the low end. Check the Job Bank figures above before you decide.
  • You get bored easily. Long stretches of sitting or walking the same route with nothing happening are the norm.
  • You do not like dealing with conflict. Guards are often the first person in the way when someone is upset, drunk or breaking rules.
  • You want to see a clear path up. Many guards stay at the same level, and the way up usually means supervisor, site manager, another security specialty or a move into a different field.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Check you qualify

    The ontario.ca page says you must be 18 years old or older and legally entitled to work in Canada, and you cannot have convictions for the offences listed in Ontario Regulation 37/08 unless you have a pardon or record suspension. You will need a Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check.

  2. Complete the mandatory training and the test

    The page says you must complete mandatory basic security guard training and get an Ontario training completion number from your training provider, then pass the mandatory test and get an Ontario testing completion number. We did not read the course length or test format on the ontario.ca page, so check it there before you pay anyone.

  3. Apply for your licence

    You apply to the province. The page says the application fee is $80, that the licence expires two birthdays after it is issued, and that it renews for two-year terms. You must carry a digital or printed copy of the licence at all times and show it on request.

  4. Get hired

    Guards generally work for a licensed security agency or directly for an organization. The ontario.ca page says guards are responsible for obtaining and renewing their own licences. Ask any agency what shifts, sites and pay they offer, and whether they pay for training.

  5. Use it as a step

    For many people, guard work is a first job before policing, border services, corrections or another path. If you are thinking about that, read our criminology and criminal justice guide and the police foundations degree page.

Where this comes from: Ontario — Security guard or private investigator licence (individuals) · Ontario — Requirements for security guard and private investigator agencies

The money

Security guard salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$17.95
Low (hourly)
$20.00
Median (hourly)
$34.87
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 64410. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Security guard wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Limited2 out of 5 stars

  • Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions.
  • A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

36,500
people work in this job in Ontario
25%
are women (48% across all jobs)
5%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Security guards and related security service occupations job prospects in Ontario (NOC 64410). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take law, social science and communications courses. Writing a clear report and talking calmly to someone who is upset are the two core skills.
  • Do your volunteer hours somewhere that involves crowds or events, such as a community event, where you can watch how organisers and security staff handle the public.
  • Read the criminology and criminal justice careers guide and the police foundations degree page on this site if you are thinking about policing or corrections later.
  • Practise writing facts only. Describe something you saw today in five sentences with times and without opinions, because incident reports work that way.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Write an incident report and test your attention

About 60 minutes
  1. Sit somewhere public and safe, such as a library, a food court or a park bench, for thirty minutes. Do not follow, film or approach anyone, and do not interfere with what anybody is doing.
  2. Write down, with times, only what you observed: where people went, which doors were used, what changed. Leave out guesses about who people are or why they are there.
  3. Afterward, count how many times your attention drifted, and how you felt at the end of thirty minutes of mostly nothing.
  4. Read the ontario.ca individual licence page for security guards and write down what you would need to do to apply, including the age, the training and the test.

What it tells you. If you could stay alert and write a clean, factual report, and the quiet did not bother you, the core of the job is within reach. If you were bored within ten minutes, or the thought of eight hours of it feels grim, a first job here would be a long one, and a different entry job may suit you better.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “How many hours of your week are something happening and how many are waiting?”
  2. “How do you deal with night shifts over several years?”
  3. “What is the hardest conversation you have had with a member of the public?”
  4. “What does your agency or employer do to train you beyond the licence?”
  5. “What did you do next, and did this job help?”
  6. “What would you change about the schedule if you could?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

A security guard agency can be started, but it needs its own licence from the Ministry of the Solicitor General, and the agency is responsible for the guards it hires. The ontario.ca agency requirements page covers what is needed. It is a business of contracts, scheduling, insurance and compliance, which is very different from being a guard.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a security guard make in Ontario?

The median pay for a security guard in Ontario is $20.00 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $17.95 to $34.87 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a security guard in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as limited for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions. A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements. There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a security guard in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Check you qualify; Complete the mandatory training and the test; Apply for your licence.

How many people work as a security guard in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 36,500 people working in this job in Ontario. 25% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Where people come from

Which programs lead here?

In the 2021 Census, this job is one of the 12 most common for graduates of these programs. Each page shows what else they do, and which of those jobs have openings.

Criminology and criminal justice jobs For veterans: free career coaching and resources What can you do with your degree?

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

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Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

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Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.