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Alabama Highway Patrol entry pay
What this agency pays a new officer to start, and how that compares with the rest of the country.
Entry pay onlyEvery salary here is what an officer is paid on day one, out of the academy — base pay on a 40-hour week, with no overtime, shift differential, specialty or education pay counted. Nobody stays on it.
Alabama Highway Patrol starts at $56,726 a year — about $27.27 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $11,664 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $8,271 below the median for state agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Alabama run about 11% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $63,865 would somewhere at average prices — $7,138 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 62 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. Based on state-wide price levels, because this agency is not tied to a single metro area, from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024. The salary above is what the employer publishes; this line is our arithmetic on it, and nothing on this site is ranked on it.
What Alabama Highway Patrol says about itself
The Highway Patrol Division's primary goal is to preserve the safety of those who travel Alabama's roadways.
What Alabama Highway Patrol does
Alabama's Highway Patrol Division sits within the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency's Department of Public Safety, alongside the Marine Patrol and Driver License divisions. It is organised into seven troops made up of 17 posts, together with a Motor Carrier Safety Unit and a Communications Unit, and its troopers patrol roughly 69,500 miles of rural roadway across the state. Highway Patrol accounts for approximately 65 percent of the arresting officers in the whole agency. Troopers also investigate traffic crashes and support other divisions with special details, training and enforcement, and some are trained to carry out commercial vehicle inspections.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. State of Alabama Personnel Department Pay Plan — open the source document
$56,726.40. Current official information verified 8 August 2026
Entry-level base salary only. Overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift
differentials, locality pay and lateral rates are excluded, so most officers earn more
than this.
How this level compares
Where Alabama Highway Patrol sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.
| Level | Lowest | Median | Highest | Agencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| Federal | $70,477 | $73,502 | $86,530 | 5 |
| Territory | $16,640 | $28,236 | $43,354 | 9 |
Federal agencies pay the most to start
The middle federal agency starts at $73,502 — about $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Alabama Highway Patrol starts at $56,726, so $8,272 below the state middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Alabama Highway Patrol officer make?
Alabama Highway Patrol starts a new officer on $56,726 a year, about $27.27 an hour on a 2,080-hour year. That is base salary before overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift differentials and locality pay, so most serving officers earn more. The figure comes from State of Alabama Personnel Department Pay Plan.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Alabama?
It ranks #4 of 21 agencies we have verified in Alabama — 17 pay less, 3 pay more in the state — and #1,376 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $11,664 below, and against other state agencies $8,271 below.
Compare with another department
Put Alabama Highway Patrol side by side with any other agency on the site — the two salaries, what each is worth once local prices are counted, and which comes out ahead.
The agencies either side of it
Other agencies in AL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Alabama | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madison Police Department | Municipal | 88 | $60,195 | +$3,469 | #1,226 |
| 2 | Huntsville Police Department | Municipal | 432 | $58,614 | +$1,888 | #1,300 |
| 3 | Shelby County Sheriff's Office | County | 147 | $57,408 | +$682 | #1,362 |
| 5 | Madison County Sheriff's Office | County | 184 | $55,390 | −$1,336 | #1,415 |
| 6 | Montgomery Police Department | Municipal | 259 | $55,168 | −$1,558 | #1,420 |
| 7 | Baldwin County Sheriff's Office | County | 174 | $53,768 | −$2,958 | #1,476 |
| 8 | Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office | County | 112 | $51,888 | −$4,838 | #1,521 |
| 9 | Prattville Police Department | Municipal | 96 | $50,679 | −$6,047 | #1,544 |
| 10 | Mobile County Sheriff's Office | County | 236 | $50,526 | −$6,200 | #1,551 |
| 11 | University of Alabama at Birmingham Police Department | Special jurisdiction | — | $49,920 | −$6,806 | #1,577 |
| 12 | Fairhope Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $47,840 | −$8,886 | #1,601 |
| 13 | Jefferson County Sheriff's Office | County | 466 | $47,736 | −$8,990 | #1,604 |
Base pay is only part of the year
Whatever the figure above, the rotation is what decides your year — which weekends you lose, when the changeovers land, what you can plan around. Save yours once and BlueShifts shows it a year ahead, with the off-duty jobs you take and what each one paid.
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