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Milwaukee 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.
Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office starts at $70,262 a year — about $33.78 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $1,872 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $4,888 above the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $72,483 would somewhere at average prices — $2,220 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 92 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isMilwaukee County Sheriff's Office reported 277 sworn officers and 327 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 Milwaukee County says about itself
We are dedicated to our mission: To serve and protect everyone within Milwaukee County with fairness, integrity, and respect. Our vision is to be a model public safety agency based on service and trust. And as a team, we are committed to service through our core values: professionalism, fairness, integrity, and respect.
What Milwaukee County does
Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office is the oldest sheriff's office in Wisconsin. Its constitutional mandates are keeping the peace throughout the county, maintaining the county jail, providing bailiff services to the circuit courts and serving legal process, and it is organised into three bureaus — Administration, Police Services and Detention Services. Deputies police the county's expressways, parks, airport and courthouse complex rather than the city streets, which belong to the municipal departments, and the Process Division serves subpoenas, restraining orders, injunctions, summonses and evictions under state statute. The office describes community policing as its organisational philosophy and works to identify and support neighbourhood leaders.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Wisconsin Department of Justice WILENET official employment posting — — open the source document
2026 recruitment; application deadline 16 May 2026; $33.78-$42.31
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 Milwaukee 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. Milwaukee County starts at $70,262, so $4,888 above the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $70,262 a year, about $33.78 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 Wisconsin Department of Justice WILENET official employment posting —.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Wisconsin?
It ranks #24 of 74 agencies we have verified in Wisconsin — 50 pay less, 23 pay more in the state — and #753 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $1,872 above, and against other county agencies $4,888 above.
Compare with another department
Put Milwaukee 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 WI
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Milwaukee | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Menomonee Falls Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $82,618 | +$12,355 | #339 |
| 2 | Fitchburg Police Department | Municipal | 50 | $78,790 | +$8,528 | #432 |
| 3 | Brookfield Police Department | Municipal | 80 | $78,666 | +$8,403 | #438 |
| 4 | Cedarburg Police Department | Municipal | 24 | $77,561 | +$7,299 | #469 |
| 5 | Stoughton Police Department | Municipal | 23 | $76,378 | +$6,115 | #498 |
| 6 | Waukesha County Sheriff's Office | County | 158 | $76,128 | +$5,866 | #505 |
| 7 | River Falls Police Department | Municipal | 27 | $75,525 | +$5,262 | #535 |
| 8 | Grafton Police Department | Municipal | 22 | $75,102 | +$4,840 | #555 |
| 9 | Dodge County Sheriff's Office | County | 64 | $75,088 | +$4,826 | #556 |
| 10 | St. Croix County Sheriff's Office | County | 98 | $74,695 | +$4,433 | #568 |
| 11 | Kenosha Police Department | Municipal | 231 | $74,640 | +$4,378 | #572 |
| 12 | Glendale Police Department | Municipal | 39 | $74,040 | +$3,778 | #592 |
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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