Police Officer Salary

If you have read over a police officer job description with the intention of becoming a police officer, you may want to know what your future salary will look like. It is hard to pinpoint the exact police officer salary you will earn when you join the force, but you can look at the averages to get a rough idea.

Check out this video from Sergeant Carl Nielson of the Pleasant Grove Police Department in Utah. It covers most of the information that we will elaborate on in the paragraphs below.

As you can see, your salary will vary based on where you work, how long you have been in the force, what position you have, and other factors pertaining to your job. Here is a further analysis to help you see what your pay rates will be in the future.

Note that the following pay rates are courtesy of PayScale.com. They reflect the current averages seen across the country.

Police Officer Salary by Experience

Obviously, the longer you spend on the force, the more money you will make. Sergeant Nielsen says that the starting pay for officers in his area is $17 an hour, and PayScale.com states that starting annual pay is roughly $28,000 a year. As you progress up the ladder in the criminal justice system, you could earn significantly more than that. Officers with more than 20 years in law enforcement can make upwards of $80,000 a year.

Statistically, 9% of the current officers in law enforcement have less than one year’s experience in the field. 36% of the population has between one and four years of experience, and 24% have five to nine years of experience. 22% of police officers have ten to nineteen years of experience, and 9% have twenty years or more invested in their careers. You will obviously start as part of the “less than one year” group, but then you can join others with higher pay levels and more experience.

Police Officer Salary by Gender

Men make up 91% of the police officer population, and women cover the remaining 9%. Pay differences aren’t incredibly significant, but statistics suggest that men make slightly more than women. That may just be because they have a larger sample to pull from. The average female in law enforcement will earn between $36,000 and $57,000 a year, and the average male will earn between $37,000 and $65,000 annually. Based on those figures, men and women make roughly the same amount of money every year. Those figures may be slightly different in your area, depending on the criminal activity in your community.

Police Officer Salary by Degree

You don’t need a college degree to become a police officer. All you need is a high school diploma to be accepted in a police academy. As long as you can pass through police officer training, you can begin working in law enforcement. Nevertheless, having a college degree can improve your chances of getting hired in the future. It would not hurt to go through a degree program if given the chance, but you do not have to let that scare you away from this career path.

The statistics for different degree levels are rather surprising, as it appears that officers with associate’s degrees earn slightly more than those with bachelor’s degree. That may be the result of the time commitments needed for the degrees. Associate’s graduates have a two year head start over bachelor’s degree holders. Thus they are able to earn more money. Associate’s degree holders earn between $31,000 and $85,000 a year, while bachelor’s degree holders earn between $32,000 and $78,000 a year. The differences aren’t terribly significant, but they do exist.

Police Officer Salary by Location

New England and California tend to offer the highest paying positions for police officers, but that may be due to the high costs of living in those areas. You should be able to make decent money for your area no matter where you live. Here is a list of the 10 highest paying cities for police officers in the country, along with the pay rates you could earn in those areas.

• 1. Nassau, New York: $42,729 – $120,864
• 2. Oakland, California: $70,197 – $99,872
• 3. San Francisco, California: $47,500 – $105,498
• 4. New York, New York: $40,326 – $96,022
• 5. Newark, New Jersey: $52,000 – $85,000
• 6. East Orange, New Jersey: $52,500 – $75,885
• 7. San Jose, California: $58,000 – $102,000
• 8. Chicago, Illinois: $42,885 – $86,966
• 9. Joliet, Illinois: $45,863 – $100,299
• 10. Jersey City, New Jersey: $49,132 – $91,563

Where you choose to work is entirely up to you, but at least now you have a rough idea of the police officer salary you may experience in different areas of the country. All you have to do now is obtain the training you need to see those numbers resonating in your bank account. That goal may not be far away.