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Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — Maine Warden Service 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.
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — Maine Warden Service starts at $59,654 a year — about $28.68 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $8,736 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $5,343 below the median for state agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Maine run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $61,468 would somewhere at average prices — $1,813 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 135, where goods are 97. 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.
What Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — Maine Warden Service says about itself
Maine Game Wardens protect the people, places, and outdoor traditions that make Maine unique. It's our duty to help everyone stay safe in the outdoors, while also protecting the diversity and availability of our fish and wildlife resources.
What Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — Maine Warden Service does
The Bureau of the Warden Service is a division of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, its 125 men and women organised into five field operations divisions and eight specialty teams under a statewide leadership network. Its remit covers inland fishery and wildlife law, the registration and operation of snowmobiles, watercraft and all-terrain vehicles, general law enforcement, the investigation of hunting-related shooting incidents and recreational vehicle crashes, and the coordination of all search and rescue operations in the state
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. State of Maine Bureau of Human Resources / Maine JobLink — Game Warden; Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — open the source document
$59,654.40.
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 Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — Maine Warden Service 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. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — Maine Warden Service starts at $59,654, so $5,344 below the state middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — Maine Warden Service officer make?
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — Maine Warden Service starts a new officer on $59,654 a year, about $28.68 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 State of Maine Bureau of Human Resources / Maine JobLink — Game Warden; Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Maine?
It ranks #17 of 19 agencies we have verified in Maine — 2 pay less, 16 pay more in the state — and #1,265 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $8,736 below, and against other state agencies $5,343 below.
Compare with another department
Put Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — Maine Warden Service 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 ME
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Maine | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rockland Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $77,896 | +$18,242 | #459 |
| 2 | Biddeford Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $76,482 | +$16,827 | #494 |
| 3 | Westbrook Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $73,736 | +$14,082 | #604 |
| 4 | Falmouth Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $71,344 | +$11,690 | #704 |
| 5 | Bath Police Department | Municipal | 18 | $71,011 | +$11,357 | #721 |
| 6 | York County Sheriff's Office | County | 23 | $70,628 | +$10,974 | #741 |
| 7 | Freeport Police Department | Municipal | 17 | $69,306 | +$9,651 | #798 |
| 8 | Windham Police Department | Municipal | 28 | $69,251 | +$9,596 | #802 |
| 9 | Bangor Police Department | Municipal | 82 | $69,181 | +$9,526 | #803 |
| 10 | Auburn Police Department | Municipal | 51 | $69,000 | +$9,346 | #815 |
| 11 | Augusta Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $67,371 | +$7,717 | #901 |
| 12 | Portland Police Department | Municipal | 131 | $65,874 | +$6,219 | #973 |
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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