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Palm Beach 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.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office starts at $78,828 a year — about $37.90 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $12,143 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $15,268 above the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL run about 14% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $69,053 somewhere at average prices — $9,775 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 156 against a national average of 100, where goods are 104. 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 isPalm Beach County Sheriff's Office reported 1,720 sworn officers and 2,114 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 Palm Beach County says about itself
Our mission at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is to safeguard the lives and property of the people and communities we serve. The Sheriff's Office has over 4,000 dedicated and professional employees and is built on a foundation of trust and performance achieved through the setting of goals and the willingness to adapt. With calls for service exceeding 1.2 million from the county's 1.5 million residents, and demands ever-increasing in scope and complexity, our roughly 1,800 volunteers remain an integral component of our service model, helping to bolster our responsiveness by freeing up deputies for their frontline responsibilities. Committed to upholding the highest professional standards, the office maintains Excelsior level accreditation status with the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation.
What Palm Beach County does
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office describes itself as a full-service law-enforcement agency providing patrol, investigations, corrections, court services and specialized public-safety functions. The Office emphasizes protecting life and property, reducing crime and maintaining strong partnerships with the community.
Palm Beach County’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Article 27 of the agreement with the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association sets 161 hours in a 28-day work cycle. Road patrol deputies work 11.5-hour shifts: the day shift on a 3-2-2-3 rotation and the night shift on a 4-4 rotation. Specialist units are scheduled separately in the same article - canine and airport on 4/4 at 11.5 hours, EOD and motors on 4/3 at 10 hours, marine on 3/2, 2/3 at 11.5 hours, and SIS on 5/2 at eight hours. Any other schedule has to be agreed by both parties in writing.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
A 3-2-2-3 rotation on 11.5-hour tours runs on a fortnight, not a week, so the same weekday is a work day one fortnight and a day off the next - and the seven shifts land as 161 hours every 28 days rather than 40 a week. BlueShifts builds the cycle once and fills in every month ahead, marks day and night tours separately so day platoon and night platoon read differently at a glance, and keeps a running count of what the details you work off duty have earned.
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.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 30 August 2026. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Law Enforcement & Corrections careers, Deputy Sheriff LE - FL Certified starting salary — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 January 2025.
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 Palm Beach 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 | $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. Palm Beach County starts at $78,828, so $15,263 above the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $78,828 a year, about $37.90 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 Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Law Enforcement & Corrections careers, Deputy Sheriff LE - FL Certified starting salary.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Florida?
It ranks #9 of 303 agencies we have verified in Florida — 294 pay less, 8 pay more in the state — and #526 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $12,143 above, and against other county agencies $15,268 above.
What shifts do Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office officers work?
Article 27 of the agreement with the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association sets 161 hours in a 28-day work cycle. Road patrol deputies work 11.5-hour shifts: the day shift on a 3-2-2-3 rotation and the night shift on a 4-4 rotation. Specialist units are scheduled separately in the same article - canine and airport on 4/4 at 11.5 hours, EOD and motors on 4/3 at 10 hours, marine on 3/2, 2/3 at 11.5 hours, and SIS on 5/2 at eight hours. Any other schedule has to be agreed by both parties in writing. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Palm Beach 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 FL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Palm | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boca Raton Police Services Department | Municipal | 195 | $91,007 | +$12,179 | #244 |
| 2 | Fort Lauderdale Police Department | Municipal | 565 | $81,723 | +$2,895 | #433 |
| 3 | Plantation Police Department | Municipal | 164 | $81,000 | +$2,172 | #459 |
| 4 | Hillsboro Beach Police Department | Municipal | 15 | $80,954 | +$2,126 | #461 |
| 5 | Pinecrest Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $80,912 | +$2,084 | #464 |
| 6 | Sunny Isles Beach Police Department | Municipal | 65 | $80,000 | +$1,172 | #496 |
| 7 | Indian Creek Village Public Safety Department | Municipal | 10 | $79,850 | +$1,022 | #500 |
| 8 | Sunrise Police Department | Municipal | 190 | $79,071 | +$243 | #520 |
| 10 | Aventura Police Department | Municipal | 91 | $78,556 | −$272 | #536 |
| 11 | Longboat Key Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $78,430 | −$398 | #543 |
| 12 | Manalapan Police Department | Municipal | 13 | $78,280 | −$548 | #549 |
| 13 | Coral Springs Police Department | Municipal | 222 | $77,516 | −$1,312 | #572 |
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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