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Gem 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.
Gem County Sheriff's Office starts at $39,811 a year — about $19.14 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $28,579 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $25,563 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Boise City, ID run about 2% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $40,462 would somewhere at average prices — $651 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 71, 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 isGem County Sheriff's Office reported 13 sworn officers and 26 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 Gem County says about itself
Under general supervision, exercises responsibilities for the enforcement of state and local laws relating to public safety and welfare. Patrols designated areas, determines if a crime has been committed, enforces laws, writes citations, investigates traffic accidents, makes arrests, and transports arrestee.
What Gem County does
Gem County Sheriff's Office serves this county north-west of Boise from Emmett, and sets out its work as the statutory duties Idaho Code section 31-2202 places on a sheriff: arresting offenders and taking them before the nearest magistrate, suppressing affrays, riots and breaches of the peace, attending the courts, keeping the county jail and its prisoners, endorsing process with the exact time of receipt, and keeping a record of stolen cars reported in the county. It also runs the county's emergency alert system.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. This figure was advertised on the state POST job board on that date; postings there rotate, so the listing itself may since have closed. Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training official Law Enforcement Job Postings — Patrol Deputy — open the source document
Open 1 December 2025–31 August 2026; official annual salary $39,811.20
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 Gem 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. Gem County starts at $39,811, so $25,563 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Gem County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Gem County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $39,811 a year, about $19.14 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 Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training official Law Enforcement Job Postings — Patrol Deputy.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Idaho?
It ranks #50 of 51 agencies we have verified in Idaho — 1 pay less, 49 pay more in the state — and #1,653 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $28,579 below, and against other county agencies $25,563 below.
Compare with another department
Put Gem 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 ID
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Gem | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun Valley Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,005 | +$35,194 | #558 |
| 2 | Blaine County Sheriff's Office | County | 20 | $74,526 | +$34,715 | #577 |
| 3 | Boise Police Department | Municipal | 326 | $69,514 | +$29,702 | #791 |
| 4 | Meridian Police Department | Municipal | 109 | $67,621 | +$27,810 | #885 |
| 5 | Post Falls Police Department | Municipal | 52 | $67,330 | +$27,518 | #904 |
| 6 | Coeur d'Alene Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $66,872 | +$27,061 | #925 |
| 7 | Kootenai County Sheriff's Office | County | 104 | $65,291 | +$25,480 | #1,006 |
| 8 | Ada County Sheriff's Office | County | 220 | $64,896 | +$25,085 | #1,030 |
| 9 | McCall Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $63,773 | +$23,962 | #1,069 |
| 10 | Moscow Police Department | Municipal | 30 | $63,544 | +$23,733 | #1,079 |
| 11 | Lewiston Police Department | Municipal | 46 | $63,321 | +$23,510 | #1,094 |
| 12 | Idaho State Police | State | 311 | $62,546 | +$22,734 | #1,128 |
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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