Security Guards salary in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

The figures

The median Security Guards in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA metro area earns $46,820 a year ($22.51 an hour), according to the BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates (full citation in Sources). The middle half of Security Guards in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA earn between $43,610 and $49,070 a year. At the ends of the distribution, the lowest-paid 10 percent earn $38,360 or less and the top 10 percent earn $60,020 or more. BLS estimates 9,110 Security Guards jobs in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA area — 7.543 of every 1,000 jobs in the area, a location quotient of 0.91 (below the national concentration). That is 0.7% of all Security Guards employment in the United States (1,283,470 jobs nationally). By employment, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA is the #24 largest of the 25 covered metro areas for Security Guards. In aggregate, Security Guards in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA earn about $0.44 billion a year (BLS employment multiplied by the mean wage). At the mean wage, the engine's take-home is $37,668.68 a year, so the aggregate take-home of Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Security Guards is about $0.34 billion. BLS reports a relative standard error of 3.7% for this employment estimate. Ranked by median pay, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA stands #3 of the 25 metro areas covered on this site for Security Guards. By employment, Security Guards is the #23 largest of the 30 covered occupations in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA. Placed against the national distribution for Security Guards, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median of $46,820 falls above the national 75th percentile of $46,200. Across all occupations, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median is $60,690 a year — Security Guards pay is 22.9% below the area's overall median.

Wages in detail

What the wage distribution says

The top 10 percent of Security Guards in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA earn 1.6 times what the bottom 10 percent earn ($60,020 against $38,360). The middle half spans $5,460 — from $43,610 to $49,070. Hourly, the 90th percentile ($28.85) is 1.56 times the 10th ($18.44). In the upper half of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA distribution, the 75th percentile wage of $49,070 takes home $38,475.26 and the 90th percentile wage of $60,020 takes home $46,430.58 — $7,955.32 more net for $10,950 more gross. Against the median take-home of $36,840.42, the top decile keeps 1.26 times as much. The mean wage of $47,960 sits 2.4% above the median: higher-paid Security Guards pull the average up in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA. Among the 30 covered occupations in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA, Security Guards ranks #22 by median pay. In the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA wage ladder of covered occupations, Security Guards sits between Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators at $47,180 and Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand at $46,100. Security Guards accounts for 0.8% of all employment in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA metro area. The average covered metro employs 28,378 Security Guards; Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA employs 0.3 times that.

Take-home pay on the median wage in Oregon

Single filer, no dependents, no pre-tax contributions, paid biweekly, a full year of W-2 wages in Oregon; city and local taxes are not included:

At the median, $36,840.42 of the $46,820 gross is kept ($1,416.94 per paycheck) — a deduction rate of 21.31%. The deduction rate moves with pay: 19.98% at the 10th percentile, 20.87% at the 25th percentile, 21.59% at the 75th percentile, 22.64% at the 90th percentile. Between the 25th and 75th percentile wages, annual take-home rises by $3,966.56 on a gross rise of $5,460.

The same engine at the other published points of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA wage distribution:

Across the published distribution, take-home pay runs from $30,694.68 a year at the 10th percentile to $46,430.58 at the 90th — a spread of $15,735.90 of net pay inside one occupation and one metro area.

For scale: across all occupations, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median wage of $60,690 takes home $46,917.28 a year ($1,804.51 per paycheck, deduction rate 22.69%). The Security Guards median take-home of $36,840.42 sits $10,076.86 (below that area-wide figure.

Multi-state metro area. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA also covers parts of Washington. The take-home estimate above uses Oregon rules — the metro area's primary state. If the job is based in another part of the metro area, the state tax changes: see the Washington paycheck calculator.

Run your own numbers

Your own withholding depends on your Form W-4, your benefits and your other income — run your exact figures through the calculator:

Take-home pay for $46,820 in Oregon

Against the national median

Nationally, the median Security Guards earns $38,020 a year ($18.28 an hour). The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median of $46,820 is $8,800 (23.1%) above the national median.

The means rank the area the same way: $47,960 a year in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA against $42,470 nationally, a gap of $5,490 (12.9%).

Set against the whole local market, the Security Guards 90th percentile of $60,020 is 44% of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA all-occupations 90th percentile ($136,920), and its 10th percentile of $38,360 is 103% of the area-wide 10th ($37,200).

Sources and method

Wage data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates (released May 15, 2026), retrieved October 27, 2026 — bls.gov/oes. OEWS figures are survey estimates for May 2025, not job offers. Take-home pay is computed by this site's paycheck engine with 2026 federal and state rules; the method, and what the engine does not model, is documented in the paycheck methodology guide. Estimates only — not tax advice.