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Greenville 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.
Greenville County Sheriff's Office starts at $59,273 a year — about $28.50 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $9,117 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $6,101 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC run about 7% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $63,557 would somewhere at average prices — $4,284 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 77 against a national average of 100, 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 isGreenville County Sheriff's Office reported 576 sworn officers and 121 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 Greenville County says about itself
The mission of the Greenville County Sheriff's Office is to serve as guardians to the citizens and visitors of our county, preserve life, maintain constitutional rights, protect property, and promote individual responsibility and community engagement.
What Greenville County does
The Greenville County Sheriff's Office states that its purpose is to provide professional law-enforcement services to the people of Greenville County. Its Deputy recruitment provides a path into the Sheriff's Office through academy and field training
Shifts at Greenville County
Uniform Patrol deputies are paid on an 85.75-hour pay period rather than the standard 80, with anything above 80 hours biweekly paid at time and a half.
The agency publishes the shift length but not a named cycle. These are the 12-hour rotations departments most often build on it: Pitman, 4 on, 4 off, DuPont, Panama.
An 85.75-hour period means every fortnight carries 5.75 hours of built-in overtime at time and a half — money that is easy to lose track of. BlueShifts logs the hours you actually worked against the shifts you were rostered for, so the premium is visible rather than assumed.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 15 August 2026. Greenville County Sheriff's Office Careers page and Greenville County Employment Opportunities — 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.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
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How this level compares
Where Greenville 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. Greenville County starts at $59,273, so $6,101 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Greenville County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Greenville County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $59,273 a year, about $28.50 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 Greenville County Sheriff's Office Careers page and Greenville County Employment Opportunities.
Is that good pay for a police officer in South Carolina?
It ranks #4 of 16 agencies we have verified in South Carolina — 12 pay less, 3 pay more in the state — and #1,277 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $9,117 below, and against other county agencies $6,101 below.
What shifts do Greenville County Sheriff's Office officers work?
Uniform Patrol deputies are paid on an 85.75-hour pay period rather than the standard 80, with anything above 80 hours biweekly paid at time and a half. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Greenville 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 Greenville | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Myrtle Beach Police Department | Municipal | 215 | $66,747 | +$7,474 | #935 |
| 2 | South Carolina Highway Patrol | State | 1,004 | $60,761 | +$1,488 | #1,205 |
| 3 | North Myrtle Beach Police Department | Municipal | 98 | $60,000 | +$727 | #1,244 |
| 5 | Greenville Police Department | Municipal | 219 | $57,353 | −$1,920 | #1,364 |
| 6 | University of South Carolina Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 6 | $56,696 | −$2,577 | #1,379 |
| 7 | Berkeley County Sheriff's Office | County | 305 | $54,878 | −$4,395 | #1,442 |
| 8 | Charleston County Sheriff's Office | County | — | $54,475 | −$4,798 | #1,454 |
| 9 | York County Sheriff's Office | County | 223 | $54,122 | −$5,151 | #1,460 |
| 10 | Lexington County Sheriff's Department | County | 296 | $53,351 | −$5,922 | #1,489 |
| 11 | Horry County Police Department | County | 87 | $53,022 | −$6,251 | #1,496 |
| 12 | Beaufort County Sheriff's Office | County | 212 | $50,107 | −$9,166 | #1,560 |
| 13 | Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office | County | 333 | $49,942 | −$9,331 | #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.
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