Paying for better security
WE HAVE A historic opportunity to raise the standard of living for thousands of Boston working men, women, and families, revitalize Boston's working class neighborhoods, and improve the safety and security of all residents and workers with one simple step -- allowing security officers to unionize.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 16,000 of our neighbors work as security officers at our universities, office towers, hospitals, and apartment buildings. The vast majority of them are employed by a small handful of extremely profitable national and international security corporations -- and by one locally owned company, Northeast Security. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, security officer pay in the Greater Boston area ranges from around $8.90 an hour to slightly higher than $12 an hour, leaving a family below the poverty line, even after a full week of work. Health benefits, if offered at all, are too often priced far out of reach of a $20,000 annual salary.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports that security services are among the top 10 fastest growing occupations: Between 2000 and 2010, the number of workers employed in the industry is expected to increase by 35 percent to 1.5 million. And while the industry as a whole makes handsome profits, they leave precious little money in the hands of the workers. Given the demographic make up of Boston's security guards and their sheer numbers, a raise in wages and an improvement in benefits would have a ripple effect, helping breadwinners to stabilize and revitalize many of Boston's marginalized neighborhoods. In fact, if security officers in Boston and Cambridge office buildings received just a 50 cent raise per hour, it would pump more than $5.2 million into the pockets of those living in Boston's least affluent neighborhoods.
Right now, security companies are taking more out of our community pocket than they are putting in. Until they agree to pay a living wage and make benefits affordable, companies making a profit on security officers are actually a drain on our economy. Because security officers work for near-poverty wages and virtually non existent benefits, the taxpayers of Boston, Cambridge, and all of Massachusetts actually subsidize security company profits when workers apply for housing assistance, food stamps, and state-funded healthcare. Our hard-earned tax dollars should not be going to subsidize the basic needs of a full-time workforce that is employed by large, profitable private sector companies.
Beyond the neighborhood improvements, beyond the drain on our tax dollars, and beyond simple fairness, there is another reason that all of us in Boston should want to see security officers fairly paid -- for our own safety and security. Following the attacks of 9/11, officials from the Department of Homeland Security to local law enforcement agreed we needed to demand more from our security officers. Repeatedly, we were told that these guards were our first line of defense at large institutions, office towers, and universities. While there has been much discussion regarding safety and security, virtually nothing has changed in terms of actual conditions and work environment for security officers.
Because of the low pay and poor benefits, security officer turnover is nearly constant -- 100 percent to 300 percent annually, according to a study by the market research company Freedonia Group. The first line of defense in your apartment building, hospital, or college, the security officers, may be so new to their role that in the event of a major emergency they won't know where to send you or your family, or even where the exits are.
As a community, as responsible building owners, college presidents, and hospital administrators, we need to tell the security industry: Pay your people a living wage, let them organize, and train them to a standard that improves all of our safety.
Thomas M. Menino is mayor of Boston. The Rev. Gregory G. Groover Sr. is pastor at the Charles Street AME Church. 
