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Beaufort County Sheriff's Office 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.
Beaufort County Sheriff's Office starts at $52,345 a year — about $25.17 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $14,340 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $11,215 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC run about 2% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $53,404 would somewhere at average prices — $1,059 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 88, where goods are 96. Based on price levels for this metropolitan 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.
How big the department isBeaufort County Sheriff's Office reported 212 sworn officers and 97 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025.No rate is shown: this agency does not police a single population the FBI publishes a figure for. Reporting to the FBI is voluntary, so a count can reflect a partial return as easily as a small agency, and the FBI asks that agencies not be compared on staffing. Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, Full-time Law Enforcement Employees, 2025.
What Beaufort County says about itself
The primary mission of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office is to safeguard the lives and property of Beaufort County's residents and guests. We foster and maintain partnerships within our community to better understand and address the diverse issues affecting Beaufort County.
What Beaufort County does
Beaufort County Sheriff's Office holds international, national and state accreditation — CALEA, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Accreditation programme and the ANSI National Accreditation Board — covering law enforcement, its 9-1-1 communications center and its Forensic Services Laboratory, which provides DNA and controlled-substance analysis for local and surrounding agencies. Its evidence section handles about 15,000 items a year
Where the figure comes from
Checked 20 September 2026. Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, Recruitment Center - Patrol Deputy: "The current entry-level salary for a new hire, who meets the general qualifications listed, is $52,345." — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 December 2025.
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 Beaufort County 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 | $33,280 | $68,140 | $163,619 | 1549 |
| County | $35,000 | $63,565 | $132,263 | 516 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,166 | $110,916 | 145 |
| 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 $5,400 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,900 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,300 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Beaufort County starts at $52,345, so $11,220 below the county middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Beaufort County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $52,345 a year, about $25.17 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 Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, Recruitment Center - Patrol Deputy: "The current entry-level salary for a new hire, who meets the general qualifications listed, is $52,345.".
Is that good pay for a police officer in South Carolina?
It ranks #17 of 27 agencies we have verified in South Carolina — 10 pay less, 16 pay more in the state — and #1,973 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $14,340 below, and against other county agencies $11,215 below.
Compare with another department
Put Beaufort County Sheriff's Office 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 SC
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Beaufort | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Myrtle Beach Police Department | Municipal | 215 | $66,747 | +$14,402 | #1,142 |
| 2 | North Myrtle Beach Police Department | Municipal | 98 | $62,000 | +$9,655 | #1,449 |
| 3 | South Carolina Highway Patrol | State | 1,004 | $61,908 | +$9,563 | #1,454 |
| 4 | Horry County Police Department | County | — | $61,800 | +$9,455 | #1,461 |
| 5 | Rock Hill Police Department | Municipal | 148 | $61,331 | +$8,986 | #1,484 |
| 6 | York County Sheriff's Office | County | 223 | $61,081 | +$8,736 | #1,496 |
| 7 | Mount Pleasant Police Department | Municipal | 159 | $60,611 | +$8,266 | #1,526 |
| 8 | Greenville County Sheriff's Office | County | 576 | $59,273 | +$6,928 | #1,618 |
| 9 | Charleston Police Department | Municipal | 419 | $58,115 | +$5,770 | #1,671 |
| 10 | Greenville Police Department | Municipal | 219 | $57,353 | +$5,008 | #1,739 |
| 11 | University of South Carolina Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 6 | $56,696 | +$4,351 | #1,767 |
| 12 | North Charleston Police Department | Municipal | 308 | $56,078 | +$3,733 | #1,794 |
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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