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Security Officer Michael Johnson Dreams of
a Better Future

A typical day for Michael Johnson starts at 5:30 a.m., when he heads to his job as a security officer in a downtown Los Angeles office building. He walks back through the door of his home some 17 hours later, after leaving his second job.

Working 75 to 80 hours a week, Johnson barely has time to spend with his wife and five children.Unfortunately, Johnson’s plight is typical of Los Angeles’ private sector security officers who struggle to provide the basic necessities while protecting multi-million dollar properties.

Johnson’s monthly take home pay from ABM Security Services, where he has worked for nearly two years, and WSA Security, which has employed him for 12 years, is roughly $2,400. Every month is a struggle to buy groceries, pay bills and cover the $975 per month rent on his family’s one-and-a-half bedroom apartment.

Johnson can’t afford the health insurance his company offers, so he and his family have to rely on Medi-Cal. Johnson’s children range in age from two months to 11 years old.

“It makes me feel like less than a man not being able to support my family the way I want to,” said Johnson. “It’s hard on my kids. It should be a lot better for security officers.”

Johnson has joined with the Stand for Security Coalition (which includes LAANE, the Service Employees International Union and many community and faith leaders) to fight to improve working conditions and increase public safety in Los Angeles’ downtown offices. With all the risks security officers take to protect high-rise office buildings, including the one he patrols and guards unarmed, Johnson said he would like to see a higher standard implemented in the industry. That would entail higher wages, better training and affordable health care for security officers.

“We need better wages, better benefits and job security. I want to see changes. I can’t keep doing this two-job thing. I’m burned out,” said Johnson.

That’s not the way Johnson felt about becoming a security officer when he first donned a uniform and put on a badge. He felt honored to be part of the profession.

Becoming a security officer was worlds away from the life he led while growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Johnson said. That life, the 41-year-old Johnson said, was one that revolved around street hustling.

To improve his life, Johnson moved to California 22 years ago. He took odd jobs working as a dishwasher, a roofer and bagging groceries. Eventually Johnson was talked into becoming a security officer. He liked the prestige that came with the job.

“Security officers used to be on the level of teachers. People used to look up to security officers as they did with the police,” Johnson said. “That’s not the way people see security officers today.

“A lot of people think that security officers don’t do anything,” he said. “But it’s not a walk through the park. Our lives are on the line.”