SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards & Associates (CALSAGA) today launched a six-figure advertising campaign opposing SB 1203, warning that the bill’s $2 billion cost will make security unaffordable for hospitals, malls, grocery stores, and office buildings across California. Roughly 90% of businesses that use security guards are small businesses, which will be left to absorb the hike or go without protection.
The bill repeats the mistakes of the state’s fast-food minimum wage law, which resulted in fewer restaurant workers and more customers relying on self-service kiosks. Facing the same cost pressure, businesses that rely on security guards will have to stop using them altogether or raise prices for their customers, just as fast-food restaurants did.
The campaign’s centerpiece :60 video, “When Will They Learn?” opens on the guards Californians count on every day, calling out the bill’s exorbitant cost on public safety, drawing a direct connection to the unintended consequences of the fast-food minimum wage law.
“Right now, someone is standing guard at your hospital, your office building, your neighborhood store, but here’s the latest special interest scheme in Sacramento. They want to make it harder to hire security guards, all while adding $2 billion in security costs to California businesses,” the ad states. “Our state’s small businesses, already stretched thin, will be the ones left picking up the tab.”
SB 1203 would reconstitute the Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC), dormant since 2004, and grant it authority to set wages for California’s licensed security workforce, without accountability to voters or any obligation to conduct a market analysis.
“This bill will hurt the very people it’s trying to help,” said David Chandler, president of CALSAGA. “Sacramento already tried this with fast-food wages, and workers lost hours and jobs. This time, the cost isn’t ordering a burger on a touchscreen, it’s a hospital, school, or mall with no trained guard on duty.”
The bill would also shift guard training over to an unnamed entity that has no experience and expertise in training guards currently protecting public agencies and businesses across California. It would eliminate established training programs and agencies, which all follow the strict guidelines and training protocols established by the state Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, and hand over the responsibility to a new entity that has no infrastructure to rapidly scale training once the bill would take effect in July 2028, just weeks from the opening of the LA Olympic Games.
“We support strong training standards, but we can’t scrap our established training system and hand it over to an untested entity with no security expertise or infrastructure to train 360,000 guards just before California hosts the LA 2028 Olympics,” said Chandler. “This is reckless and a public safety risk the state can’t afford to take.”
SB 1203 is currently before the state Senate Appropriations Committee. If it clears the Senate, the bill will head to the Governor’s desk.
ABOUT: CALSAGA represents approximately 3,000 licensed security employers and more than 360,000 licensed security professionals across California.