Home › Police pay › South Carolina › Berkeley County Sheriff's Office
Berkeley 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.
Berkeley County Sheriff's Office starts at $54,878 a year — about $26.38 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $13,512 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $10,497 below the median for county agencies.
How big the department isBerkeley County Sheriff's Office reported 305 sworn officers and 52 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.
About Berkeley County
Berkeley County Sheriff's Office serves more than 264,277 residents, about 171,484 of them in unincorporated areas that rely on it as their primary law enforcement provider, across South Carolina's third-largest county by land area at 1,099 square miles, including the 66,000-acre Lake Moultrie. Sheriff S. Duane Lewis began as a Berkeley County deputy in 1984 and was elected sheriff in June 2015
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. Berkeley County Sheriff's Office Join Our Team page — open the source document
Their source is effective 10 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 Berkeley 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 | $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. Berkeley County starts at $54,878, so $10,496 below the county middle.
How it ranks
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
Common questions
How much does a Berkeley County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Berkeley County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $54,878 a year, about $26.38 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 Berkeley County Sheriff's Office Join Our Team page.
Is that good pay for a police officer in South Carolina?
It ranks #7 of 16 agencies we have verified in South Carolina — 9 pay less, 6 pay more in the state — and #1,442 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $13,512 below, and against other county agencies $10,497 below.
Compare with another department
Put Berkeley 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 Berkeley | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Myrtle Beach Police Department | Municipal | 215 | $66,747 | +$11,869 | #935 |
| 2 | South Carolina Highway Patrol | State | 1,004 | $60,761 | +$5,883 | #1,205 |
| 3 | North Myrtle Beach Police Department | Municipal | 98 | $60,000 | +$5,122 | #1,244 |
| 4 | Greenville County Sheriff's Office | County | 576 | $59,273 | +$4,395 | #1,277 |
| 5 | Greenville Police Department | Municipal | 219 | $57,353 | +$2,476 | #1,364 |
| 6 | University of South Carolina Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 6 | $56,696 | +$1,818 | #1,379 |
| 8 | Charleston County Sheriff's Office | County | — | $54,475 | −$403 | #1,454 |
| 9 | York County Sheriff's Office | County | 223 | $54,122 | −$756 | #1,460 |
| 10 | Lexington County Sheriff's Department | County | 296 | $53,351 | −$1,527 | #1,489 |
| 11 | Horry County Police Department | County | 87 | $53,022 | −$1,856 | #1,496 |
| 12 | Beaufort County Sheriff's Office | County | 212 | $50,107 | −$4,771 | #1,560 |
| 13 | Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office | County | 333 | $49,942 | −$4,936 | #1,570 |
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.
Scan to install
