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Montana Highway Patrol 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.
Montana Highway Patrol starts at $71,240 a year — about $34.25 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $2,850 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $6,242 above the median for state agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Montana run about 5% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $75,271 would somewhere at average prices — $4,031 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 72 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isMontana Highway Patrol reported 225 sworn officers 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 Montana Highway Patrol says about itself
Each of the eight districts within the Montana Highway Patrol has a Fatal Injury Reconstruction Support Team (FIRST) that responds to the scenes of all fatal crashes.
What Montana Highway Patrol does
The Montana Highway Patrol, created in 1935, is a division of the Montana Department of Justice covering the whole state from eight districts. Each district keeps a Fatal Injury Reconstruction Support Team that responds to every fatal crash, and troopers specialise in criminal interdiction, breath-testing instruction, honor guard and executive protection.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Montana Department of Justice official — MHP Salary and Benefits — open the source document
$71,240. Official page timestamp 17 December 2025; current page verified 8 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.
How this level compares
Where Montana Highway Patrol 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. Montana Highway Patrol starts at $71,240, so $6,242 above the state middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Montana Highway Patrol officer make?
Montana Highway Patrol starts a new officer on $71,240 a year, about $34.25 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 Montana Department of Justice official — MHP Salary and Benefits.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Montana?
It ranks #10 of 23 agencies we have verified in Montana — 13 pay less, 9 pay more in the state — and #712 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $2,850 above, and against other state agencies $6,242 above.
Compare with another department
Put Montana Highway Patrol 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 MT
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Montana | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Missoula Police Department | Municipal | 117 | $95,326 | +$24,086 | #142 |
| 2 | Bozeman Police Department | Municipal | 73 | $79,581 | +$8,341 | #416 |
| 3 | Gallatin County Sheriff's Office | County | 72 | $79,456 | +$8,216 | #421 |
| 4 | Kalispell Police Department | Municipal | 52 | $79,334 | +$8,094 | #424 |
| 5 | Missoula County Sheriff's Office | County | 59 | $77,563 | +$6,323 | #468 |
| 6 | Great Falls Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $76,253 | +$5,013 | #504 |
| 7 | Cascade County Sheriff's Office | County | 43 | $73,778 | +$2,538 | #603 |
| 8 | Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office | County | 65 | $72,800 | +$1,560 | #637 |
| 9 | Belgrade Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $71,761 | +$521 | #682 |
| 11 | Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office | County | 54 | $69,285 | −$1,955 | #799 |
| 12 | Billings Police Department | Municipal | 164 | $69,056 | −$2,184 | #812 |
| 13 | Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Department | Municipal | — | $67,648 | −$3,592 | #882 |
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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