Security Award Pay Rates 2026-27: Every Level
Minimum rates under the Security Services Industry Award 2020 (MA000016), effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.
The short answer
A Security Officer Level 1 is paid $28.42 an hour or $1,080.10 a week full-time. A casual at the same classification is paid $35.53 an hour, including the 25% casual loading. On that full-time wage, take-home pay after income tax and the Medicare levy is $47,672 a year, or $1,834 a fortnight.
MA000016 rates by classification.
All 5 classifications, with the casual rate the award publishes and what each one actually takes home after tax.
| Classification | Weekly | Hourly | Casual hourly | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Security Officer Level 1 | $1,080.10 | $28.42 | $35.53 | $47,672 |
| Security Officer Level 2 | $1,111.00 | $29.24 | $36.55 | $48,765 |
| Security Officer Level 3 | $1,129.80 | $29.73 | $37.16 | $49,430 |
| Security Officer Level 4 | $1,148.70 | $30.23 | $37.79 | $50,098 |
| Security Officer Level 5 | $1,185.70 | $31.20 | $39.00 | $51,406 |
Take-home is an estimate for a single Australian resident for tax purposes with no study loan debt and no Medicare levy surcharge, calculated with the same Wage Calculator used across this site. Superannuation is paid by your employer on top of these rates and is never deducted from them.
Where these figures come from.
Provenance
Verified- Award
- Security Services Industry Award 2020 (MA000016)
- Effective from
- 1 July 2026
- Consolidated to
- 1 July 2026
- Determinations
- PR799297, PR799454
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-09
- Cross-checked
- 5 of 5 rates against Schedule B
Every rate above was read from the award text at the Fair Work award library and then checked a second time against Schedule B of the same award, which republishes the hourly rates. Casual rates are the award’s own published figures rather than our multiplication, because the award rounds differently from a calculator. Nothing here is copied from another pay site.
What this page does not cover.
Listed as plainly as what it does, because a rate page that hides its gaps is how the wrong number ends up on a payslip.
Penalty and shift rates
Night, weekend, public holiday and overtime work is paid above the rates above.
Allowances
First aid, broken shift, meal, vehicle and uniform allowances are published separately.
Classification definitions
Schedule A sets what work sits at each level. This page carries the rates only.
Security Award Pay Rates questions, answered.
What are the security award hourly rates for 2026?
The Security Services Industry Award 2020 sets five Security Officer classifications. Level 1 is paid $28.42 an hour, or $1,080.10 a week for a full-time employee, from 1 July 2026. The scale runs to $31.20 an hour at Level 5. Every level is listed in the table above.
What is the security rate per hour for 2026?
A full-time or part-time Security Officer Level 1 is paid $28.42 an hour. A casual at the same level is paid $35.53 an hour, because the award adds a 25% casual loading in place of paid leave. At Level 5 those two figures are $31.20 and $39.00. All of them are ordinary-hours rates.
What are the new security award rates?
The figures on this page are the ones that took effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, following the Fair Work Commission's Annual Wage Review. They were read from the award consolidated to 1 July 2026 and checked a second time against Schedule B of the same award. A figure published for an earlier year is out of date, not an alternative.
What is the hourly rate of a security guard?
Fair Work describes this award as covering security guards and crowd controllers, but the award does not pay anyone under the job title security guard. It pays by classification, from Security Officer Level 1 at $28.42 an hour to Level 5 at $31.20 an hour. Which one applies depends on the classification definitions in Schedule A of the award. This page carries the rates, not those definitions, so it cannot tell you which line of the table is yours.
Do the security award rates include penalty rates?
No. Every figure on this page is an ordinary-hours minimum. Night, Saturday, Sunday, public holiday and overtime work is paid at a higher rate, set in its own table in the award, and that table is not published on this page yet. No figure is shown here that has not been read from the award text.
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