Security staffing runs chronically short, and the overtime lands on whoever answers the phone: contract guards routinely log 15–25 overtime hours a week covering open posts. At $18–$24/hour, that's $15,000–$25,000 in annual time-and-a-half wages — and the premium third is now deductible from federal taxable income, up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint). Security officers are among the workers most likely to have a genuinely large claim.
The trap in this industry is the multi-employer week. Working 40 hours for one guard company and 24 for another produces zero FLSA overtime — hours never combine across unrelated employers. But working 64 hours across multiple sites for the same company absolutely does, even when the sites bill different clients; some staffing operations pay straight time across sites anyway, which is a wage violation, not a reason the deduction doesn't apply. The deduction follows overtime premium actually paid in your wages.
Armed differentials and site premiums fold into the FLSA regular rate, nudging the deductible premium up. Off-duty police working security follow their department's analysis instead. If your 2025 return skipped the deduction — likely, since the qualified amount appeared on no stub — the checkup estimates what a 1040-X recovers.