Protective Service · Holland code RCE
Parking Enforcement Workers
Patrol assigned area, such as public parking lot or city streets to issue tickets to overtime parking violators and illegally parked vehicles.
Also called: Parking Control Officer, Parking Enforcement Officer (PEO), Parking Enforcer, Ticket Writer, Meter Maid, Parking Enforcement Technician (Parking Enforcement Tech), Parking Officer, Parking Patroller.
O*NET 33-3041.00
At a glance
- US median annual pay
- $46,730
- Middle half earn $39,870 to $60,490. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
- Preparation needed
- Job Zone 2 of 5
- Some preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
What the work involves
The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.
- Enter and retrieve information pertaining to vehicle registration, identification, and status, using hand-held computers.
- Prepare and maintain required records, including logs of parking enforcement activities, and records of contested citations.
- Maintain close communications with dispatching personnel, using two-way radios or cell phones.
- Patrol an assigned area by vehicle or on foot to ensure public compliance with existing parking ordinance.
- Identify vehicles in violation of parking codes, checking with dispatchers when necessary to confirm identities or to determine whether vehicles need to be booted or towed.
- Write warnings and citations for illegally parked vehicles.
- Appear in court at hearings regarding contested traffic citations.
- Maintain assigned equipment and supplies, such as hand-held citation computers, citation books, rain gear, tire-marking chalk, and street cones.
Skills and knowledge it leans on
Skills
- Speaking3.1 / 5
- Monitoring3.1 / 5
- Active Listening3.0 / 5
- Critical Thinking3.0 / 5
- Reading Comprehension2.9 / 5
- Writing2.8 / 5
Knowledge areas
- English Language3.8 / 5
- Public Safety and Security3.5 / 5
- Law and Government3.4 / 5
- Psychology3.3 / 5
- Customer and Personal Service3.2 / 5
- Computers and Electronics2.8 / 5
Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.
Who tends to enjoy it
How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.
- Realistic90
- Investigative7
- Artistic0
- Social27
- Enterprising38
- Conventional69
The same work abroad
Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.
European occupation titles (ESCO)
- police commissioner · DE Polizeipräsident/Polizeipräsidentin · FR commissaire de police
- hand luggage inspector · DE Handgepäckkontrolleur/Handgepäckkontrolleurin · FR agent de sûreté aéroportuaire, mention «passagers»/agente de sûreté aéroportuaire, mention «passagers»
- police officer · DE Polizist/Polizistin · FR agent des forces de l’ordre/agente des forces de l’ordre
- security guard · DE Fachkraft Schutz- und Sicherheit · FR agent de sécurité/agente de sécurité
- gate guard · DE Sicherheitsbediensteter – Zugangskontrolle/Sicherheitsbedienstete – Zugangskontrolle · FR agent de sécurité chargé du contrôle de l’accès/agente de sécurité chargée du contrôle de l’accès
- civil enforcement officer · DE Verkehrsüberwacher/Verkehrsüberwacherin · FR agent de stationnement/agente de stationnement
Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)
- Police community support officers (6311)11,800 employed
- Taxi and cab drivers and chauffeurs (8213)173,900 employed
- Security guards and related occupations (9231)158,600 employed
Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.
Pay across Europe, for the whole group
Median annual earnings of all employees in “Service and sales workers”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.
| Country | Median pay |
|---|---|
| Belgium | €32,957 |
| Sweden | €32,596 |
| Netherlands | €29,198 |
| Austria | €29,068 |
| Germany | €27,471 |
| Ireland | €26,978 |
| Italy | €24,995 |
| France | €24,971 |
| Spain | €18,303 |
| Portugal | €10,656 |
| Poland | €7,579 |
Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.
Exposure to AI
This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of -0.62. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.
Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.
Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (33-3041).
Related careers
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