Home › Police pay › California › Merced Police Department
Merced Police Department 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.
Merced Police Department starts at $92,388 a year — about $44.42 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $25,703 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $24,248 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $83,443 somewhere at average prices — $8,945 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 159 against a national average of 100, where goods are 106. 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 isMerced Police Department reported 94 sworn officers and 41 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 0.9 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 98,482.A rate is only meaningful for a city department, where the population served is the city’s own. 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 Merced says about itself
The Merced Police Department is committed to the safety and protection of our citizens.
What Merced does
The Merced Police Department serves the City of Merced in California's San Joaquin Valley.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 20 September 2026. City of Merced and Merced Police Officers' Association MOU 2024-2027, Appendix A, Police Officer Step 1 — open the source document
Effective 22 July 2026 (Article 5.2, 4% increase; the table heading misprints the year); $7,699 a month at Step 1, rising to $9,827 at Step 6.
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.
Entry pay, 2024–2026
Every point is the entry-class annual base printed in the agency’s own pay document. Base pay only — no shift differential, incentives or allowances.
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.
How this level compares
Where Merced 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. Merced starts at $92,388, so $24,248 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Merced Police Department officer make?
Merced Police Department starts a new officer on $92,388 a year, about $44.42 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 City of Merced and Merced Police Officers' Association MOU 2024-2027, Appendix A, Police Officer Step 1.
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #169 of 278 agencies we have verified in California — 109 pay less, 168 pay more in the state — and #221 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $25,703 above, and against other municipal agencies $24,248 above.
Compare with another department
Put Merced Police Department 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 CA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Merced | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$71,231 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$57,055 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$55,554 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$51,615 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$50,708 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$48,636 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$47,352 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$46,577 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$45,873 | #9 |
| 10 | Los Gatos Police Department | Municipal | 34 | $132,394 | +$40,006 | #10 |
| 11 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$39,875 | #11 |
| 12 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$39,648 | #12 |
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
