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Owyhee 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.
Owyhee County Sheriff's Office starts at $45,760 a year — about $22.00 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $22,630 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $19,614 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Boise City, ID run about 2% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $46,508 would somewhere at average prices — $748 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 71, 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 isOwyhee County Sheriff's Office reported 17 sworn officers and 15 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 Owyhee County says about itself
The mission of the Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office is to to maintain the quality of life of our citizens through safeguarding individual liberties and Constitutional rights, building community partnerships through transparency and education, crime prevention, and resolving crimes that occur.
What Owyhee County does
Owyhee County Sheriff's Office covers 7,700 square miles of Idaho's south-western corner — about twelve thousand people spread across desert and mountain — from the courthouse at Murphy. It splits the county into a West end running Marsing and Homedale to Murphy and an East end from Grand View and Bruneau out to Riddle and Three Creek, and employs a back country deputy to patrol the remote areas. Its marine and back country deputies must hold POST Marine Deputy certification on top of the basic academy, and new deputies complete a twelve-week field training period.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. This figure was advertised on the state POST job board on that date; postings there rotate, so the listing itself may since have closed. Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training official Law Enforcement Job Postings — Patrol Deputy — open the source document
Current 2026 official POST recruitment; entry starting rate $22.00/hour
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 Owyhee 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. Owyhee County starts at $45,760, so $19,614 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Owyhee County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Owyhee County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $45,760 a year, about $22.00 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 Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training official Law Enforcement Job Postings — Patrol Deputy.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Idaho?
It ranks #45 of 51 agencies we have verified in Idaho — 6 pay less, 44 pay more in the state — and #1,619 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $22,630 below, and against other county agencies $19,614 below.
Compare with another department
Put Owyhee 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 ID
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Owyhee | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun Valley Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,005 | +$29,245 | #558 |
| 2 | Blaine County Sheriff's Office | County | 20 | $74,526 | +$28,766 | #577 |
| 3 | Boise Police Department | Municipal | 326 | $69,514 | +$23,754 | #791 |
| 4 | Meridian Police Department | Municipal | 109 | $67,621 | +$21,861 | #885 |
| 5 | Post Falls Police Department | Municipal | 52 | $67,330 | +$21,570 | #904 |
| 6 | Coeur d'Alene Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $66,872 | +$21,112 | #925 |
| 7 | Kootenai County Sheriff's Office | County | 104 | $65,291 | +$19,531 | #1,006 |
| 8 | Ada County Sheriff's Office | County | 220 | $64,896 | +$19,136 | #1,030 |
| 9 | McCall Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $63,773 | +$18,013 | #1,069 |
| 10 | Moscow Police Department | Municipal | 30 | $63,544 | +$17,784 | #1,079 |
| 11 | Lewiston Police Department | Municipal | 46 | $63,321 | +$17,561 | #1,094 |
| 12 | Idaho State Police | State | 311 | $62,546 | +$16,786 | #1,128 |
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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