How to price security guard contracts in the UK

Start from what the guard is paid

The minimum is the National Living Wage, £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026. Many contracts pay more: the Real Living Wage is £14.10 (£15.45 in London), and some clients require it. Night, weekend and bank holiday premiums, if you pay them, belong in the pay rate for those hours.

Add the employment costs

• Employer National Insurance: 15% of each guard's earnings above £96 a week (£5,000 a year)
• Workplace pension: at least 3% of qualifying earnings (between £120 and £967 a week)
• Holiday: 5.6 weeks a year. For irregular hours that's 12.07% on top of the hours worked
• SIA licence (£204, three years) if you pay it, training, uniform and kit

Add the business costs

• Insurance (employers' and public liability)
• Supervision, the control room or out-of-hours line, and mobile patrol cover
• Recruitment, vetting and admin
• Software, vehicles, phones and office costs

Then margin

Net margins in manned guarding are thin. Many firms aim for a gross margin of roughly 15–25% on the charge rate, depending on contract size and risk. Below that, one sick week or a late-paying client wipes out the profit.

A worked example

A guard paid £13.00 an hour on a 48-hour week: employer NI adds about £1.65 an hour, pension about £0.32, holiday at 12.07% about £1.57, and the licence and £150 of uniform a year about £0.10. That's roughly £16.63 an hour before any business costs. With overheads at 10% and margin at 20% of the charge rate, it comes to about £23.76 an hour. Try your own numbers in the charge rate calculator.

Mistakes that lose money

• Pricing from the pay rate with a flat mark-up and forgetting holiday or pension
• Not charging more for bank holidays you pay a premium on
• Fixed prices on contracts with lots of short-notice changes
• Long payment terms without allowing for the cash you need to pay guards first

Common questions