Olympic Security Costs

From the BBC

G4S is being paid £300m supply 10,000 guards for the Games, but the BBC understands it has not been able to guarantee it can deliver that number.

So, let me get this right. That's £30K per member of security staff for 3 weeks? Even if we assume that they need 4 shifts, that's the equivalent of a pro-rata £200K/ANNUM for each security guard. And they're saying that they're struggling to supply them?


Ah, but back to January

They will be paid wages that start at £8.50 an hour – higher than the London Living Wage – and will receive a security license which permits them to work in the industry for three years.

So, let's assume 10,000 guards, a few hours overlap each day (so say 30 hours/day equivalent), that's around £60m in wage costs. OK, you're going to have equipment costs, supervisory costs and so forth, but even if we doubled that, G4S is still being left with a pretty serious profit margin on this job.


Simple shopper strikes again...