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Securing Minnesota's Future

Our Falling Middle Class and How We Can Restore It

New Study: 70% of Twin Cities private security officers living without family health care, nearly 10% have filed for bankruptcy

On Wednesday, January 9th, SEIU Local 26 released this report, "Securing Minnesota's Future: Our Falling Middle Class and How We Can Restore It."

Securing Minnesota's Future Securing Minnesota's Future.pdf

Minneapolis – On the heels of recent reports indicating more than 1 million Minnesotans are living without adequate insurance, a new study finds that private security officers in the Twin Cities are almost universally without affordable, employer-sponsored family health care. Despite record sales and investments for the area’s multi-billion dollar real estate industry, the overwhelming majority of security officers who protect the majority of commercial office space throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul are living without health insurance and nearly 10 percent have filed for bankruptcy.

According to research by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 26:

  • 98 percent of private security officers in the Twin Cities cannot afford the family health insurance provided by their employer,
  • 70 percent have no family health insurance of any kind, and
  • fully 83 percent take no employer-sponsored health coverage at all.

The SEIU study also found that security firms that employ the majority of Twin Cities security officers contribute well below the average employer contribution to health care coverage premiums. Security firms provide:
  • 43% of premiums for single coverage compared to an average employer contribution of 83%
  • 18% of premiums for family coverage compared to an average employer contribution of 67%


A number of other report findings indicate area families are being left behind despite an economic boom for Twin Cities real estate corporations:

  • Commercial building owners have seen their taxes decrease dramatically since 2001, while Minnesota’s working families have only seen their incomes decrease. Downtown office properties saw their taxes lowered as much as $4,500, despite increased occupancy and profitability, since 2001. In that same time, the median family income in Minnesota has fallen by $3,000.
  • Commercial building owners are paying less in taxes—even as taxes rise for homeowners. Since 1997, the percent of the Minneapolis property tax burden that commercial/industrial properties pay dropped from 56% to 34%, while residential homeowners’ share jumped from 32% to 57%. There has been a similar shift in St. Paul.
  • 23 percent of private security officers report working multiple jobs to make ends meet. The disappearance of middle class jobs and benefits has created an entrenched low-wage workforce in the Twin Cities. The loss of manufacturing jobs has meant the loss of livable wages, comprehensive health insurance, and job security.