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Columbia 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.
Columbia County Sheriff's Office starts at $64,875 a year — about $31.19 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $1,810 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $1,316 above the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Oregon run about 3% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $62,766 somewhere at average prices — $2,110 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 109 against a national average of 100, where goods are 105. 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.
How big the department isColumbia County Sheriff's Office reported 24 sworn officers and 34 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 Columbia County says about itself
The Columbia County Sheriff's Office Patrol Unit currently consists of five(5) sworn employees -- 4 deputies and a supervisor -- who cover the roughly 640 square miles of unincorporated county lands and the needs of nearly 50,000 residents who call our county "home."
What Columbia County does
The Columbia County Sheriff's Office polices the lower Columbia River country north-west of Portland from St. Helens, with a patrol unit of five sworn employees covering some 640 square miles of unincorporated land and about 50,000 residents, alongside corrections, civil process, marine patrol, search and rescue, animal control and a narcotics team. Its deputies are represented by the Columbia County Sheriffs' Association on a nine-step table with no trainee or recruit class beneath them, and the association's enforcement and corrections entry rates are set to within a dollar a year of each other.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. Columbia County Sheriffs' Association rate table, "Effective July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027", "COLA Increase 3.00%" — "Enforcement Deputy 113 Hourly Rate $31.19 $32.74 $35.19 $37.59 $40.02 $42.43 $43.49 $44.59 $45.70", Step 1 of nine. — open the source document
$31.19 an hour is the only form the County publishes the enforcement rate in - the table prints a MONTHLY row for the custody and civilian classes and an HOURLY row for Enforcement Deputy, and gives no annual column and no hours statement. $64,875.20 is that rate at 2,080 hours, the same annualisation this roster applies to every hourly-only source, named here rather than hidden. THE TWO DEPUTY LADDERS ARE THE SAME MONEY IN DIFFERENT UNITS, which is worth saying because it removes the usual patrol-versus-custody choice: Corrections Deputy at grade 103 reads $5,406 a month, which is $64,872 a year, four-fifths of one per cent of a dollar from the enforcement figure. THERE IS NO TRAINEE, RECRUIT OR CADET CLASS ANYWHERE IN THE ASSOCIATION'S TABLE, and Enforcement Deputy is the lowest enforcement grade on it. Excluded from the figure: the eight steps above, topping out at $45.70; Enforcement Corporal, priced with Corrections Corporal at grade 135; and the civilian and civil classes - Civil Deputy 123, Senior Civil Deputy 125, Community Animal Officer 122, Animal Care Specialist 124, Evidence Technician, Corrections Clerk 128 and Corrections Technician 131 - none of which is sworn patrol. A BLANK WORTH NAMING: "Dual Certified Deputy 133" appears in the table as a title and a grade with NO RATES PRINTED against it, and the same is true of "Dual Certified Corporal". The table states its own increase: a 3.00 per cent COLA.
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.
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How this level compares
Where Columbia 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. Columbia County starts at $64,875, so $1,310 above the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Columbia County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Columbia County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $64,875 a year, about $31.19 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 Columbia County Sheriffs' Association rate table, "Effective July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027", "COLA Increase 3.00%" — "Enforcement Deputy 113 Hourly Rate $31.19 $32.74 $35.19 $37.59 $40.02 $42.43 $43.49 $44.59 $45.70", Step 1 of nine..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Oregon?
It ranks #44 of 53 agencies we have verified in Oregon — 9 pay less, 43 pay more in the state — and #1,275 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $1,810 below, and against other county agencies $1,316 above.
Compare with another department
Put Columbia 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 OR
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Columbia | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tigard Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $86,596 | +$21,721 | #329 |
| 2 | Bend Police Department | Municipal | 107 | $86,432 | +$21,557 | #331 |
| 3 | Washington County Sheriff's Office | County | 219 | $85,738 | +$20,862 | #340 |
| 4 | Gresham Police Department | Municipal | 123 | $84,968 | +$20,093 | #354 |
| 5 | Portland Police Bureau | Municipal | 809 | $84,000 | +$19,125 | #373 |
| 6 | Hillsboro Police Department | Municipal | 144 | $83,988 | +$19,113 | #376 |
| 7 | Clackamas County Sheriff's Office | County | 204 | $83,053 | +$18,178 | #402 |
| 8 | Corvallis Police Department | Municipal | 67 | $82,747 | +$17,872 | #412 |
| 9 | Lane County Sheriff's Office | County | 75 | $82,181 | +$17,306 | #423 |
| 10 | Multnomah County Sheriff's Office | County | 132 | $82,035 | +$17,160 | #427 |
| 11 | Tualatin Police Department | Municipal | 38 | $81,973 | +$17,098 | #428 |
| 12 | Oregon City Police Department | Municipal | 38 | $81,564 | +$16,689 | #438 |
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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