Security Guard Rates in NZ: Where Your $50 an Hour Actually Goes

If you've ever paid for security in New Zealand — or worked a shift on the other side of it — here's the question worth asking: when a client pays $50 an hour for a security guard, where does that money go?

The worked example. A client books 40 hours of security at $50 an hour, excluding GST. That's $2,000 of client spend. Same client, same money, same guard standing on the same site. Now watch the split.

Through a security company: the guard on that site is typically employed at around $25 an hour — $1,000 gross for the week. The other $1,000 stays with the company: rosterers, managers, offices, margin. Half the client's security budget never reaches the person providing the security.

Booked direct on Guard Select: the guard sets the rate and the client books them personally. The platform fee is 3% — $60 on that week. The guard keeps $1,940, or $48.50 an hour. Same spend, and $940 more of it goes to the licensed professional actually standing on the site.

Why this matters if you're hiring security. You're not paying more to get more. The client pays $2,000 either way. The difference is what the money buys: with a traditional security company, a rostered stranger; booked direct, a guard you chose — Certificate of Approval (COA) verified through the PSPLA, profile and training record visible, reputation on the line personally. Motivated professionals do better work, and the margin you're already paying is what motivates them.

Why this matters if you're the guard. Those figures are gross on both sides, and the honest maths matters: as an independent contractor you fund your own tax, ACC levies, leave, KiwiSaver and downtime — that's exactly why contractor rates run higher than wages, and why you price for it. But the starting point changes everything. You can't fund any of that from $25 an hour. You can from $48.50.

The security industry in New Zealand doesn't have a money problem. Clients are already paying professional rates. It has a distribution problem — and fixing that doesn't need legislation or a pay campaign. It needs the layer in the middle to become optional.

It already is.

Be the change. Join the movement.

Yours faithfully,
Tarquyn Read
Founder, Guard Select