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Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Law Enforcement Division / Texas Game Wardens 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.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Law Enforcement Division / Texas Game Wardens starts at $55,441 a year — about $26.65 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $12,949 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $9,557 below the median for state agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Texas run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $57,122 would somewhere at average prices — $1,681 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 88, where goods are 98. 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.
About Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Law Enforcement Division / Texas Game Wardens
Texas Game Wardens are commissioned state peace officers. After academy graduation they enforce the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code, Penal Code and other Texas laws, execute criminal process, provide emergency-management and homeland-security functions, and exercise statewide peace-officer authority. The published salary is base pay for a 40-hour week. Wardens are also enrolled in the same legislature-authorized expanded enforcement programme as state troopers, which schedules ten further hours a week and lifts every step's annual earnings well above the base rate. Those extra hours are paid overtime, not base salary, so the figure quoted here excludes them.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 20 August 2026. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Texas Game Warden career page, Schedule C annual salary rates — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 September 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 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Law Enforcement Division / Texas Game Wardens 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. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Law Enforcement Division / Texas Game Wardens starts at $55,441, so $9,557 below the state middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Law Enforcement Division / Texas Game Wardens officer make?
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Law Enforcement Division / Texas Game Wardens starts a new officer on $55,441 a year, about $26.65 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 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Texas Game Warden career page, Schedule C annual salary rates.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Texas?
It ranks #123 of 140 agencies we have verified in Texas — 17 pay less, 122 pay more in the state — and #1,414 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $12,949 below, and against other state agencies $9,557 below.
Compare with another department
Put Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Law Enforcement Division / Texas Game Wardens 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 TX
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Texas | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allen Police Department | Municipal | 153 | $91,106 | +$35,665 | #192 |
| 2 | Frisco Police Department | Municipal | 270 | $90,750 | +$35,309 | #200 |
| 3 | Plano Police Department | Municipal | 414 | $90,729 | +$35,288 | #201 |
| 4 | Grand Prairie Police Department | Municipal | 287 | $90,000 | +$34,559 | #216 |
| 5 | Hurst Police Department | Municipal | — | $87,048 | +$31,607 | #264 |
| 6 | Lewisville Police Department | Municipal | 181 | $86,268 | +$30,827 | #276 |
| 7 | Coppell Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $84,968 | +$29,527 | #293 |
| 8 | Rockwall Police Department | Municipal | 95 | $84,448 | +$29,007 | #300 |
| 9 | The Colony Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,082 | +$28,641 | #306 |
| 10 | Baytown Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,049 | +$28,608 | #307 |
| 11 | McKinney Police Department | Municipal | 248 | $83,992 | +$28,551 | #309 |
| 12 | Mesquite Police Department | Municipal | 260 | $83,869 | +$28,428 | #312 |
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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