Private-sector security guards could be replaced with ill-prepared lobby attendants if the D.C. Council passes a law setting a minimum wage for trained guards, a council panel was told Thursday.
The Enhanced Professional Security Amendment Act, now under consideration by the council, would tie commercial office building guards’ salaries to those of their public-sector peers — currently $11.51 per hour for “Guard 1,” plus another $3 per hour for benefits under the federal Service Contract Act.
The measure, which could boost entry-level salaries up to 45 percent higher, “professionalizes the private security business” by ensuring those people who train to become guards are paid a respectable minimum wage, said Council Member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety committee.
But setting a minimum wage does not require employers to pay the rate, the bill’s critics argued during a hearing on the legislation.
“Faced with the prospect of increased security costs, a building owner or manager, where possible, may decide to forgo utilizing security services and instead replace the security guard with a lobby attendant or other concierge service,” said Nicola Whiteman of the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington.
A guard’s core mission is to watch for suspicious activity, monitor those who enter and exit the building, squelch break-ins and forestall theft, guard Christina Scott said.
Most commercial buildings in D.C. house government offices, she said, so “we deserve equal compensation to that of government security officers.”
High turnover among private guards is largely due to insufficient pay, others said.
Replacing an incumbent workforce with inexperienced guards “decreases efficiency and increases costs to contractors and facility owners,” said Kathy Howell with the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which is pushing the bill.
Carl Rowan Jr., area vice president of Securitas Security Services USA Inc., said higher pay must not be achieved through “government price controls.” Allowing the market to determine salaries, he said, “will not destroy market realities, result in fewer officer jobs and cause a customer revolt.”
“It’s not a matter of what I think they should get,” Rowan said. “It’s a matter of what I can negotiate with my clients.”
