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Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake 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.
Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake starts at $68,099 a year — about $32.74 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $291 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $3,165 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Utah run about 1% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $68,881 would somewhere at average prices — $782 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 79, 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.
About Unified
The Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake polices Brighton, Copperton, Holladay, Emigration Canyon, Kearns, Magna, Midvale, Millcreek and White City through five patrol precincts — Kearns, Magna, Midvale, Millcreek and Holladay — each housing its own investigative squad of property crimes, community policing, school resource and traffic officers
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 August 2026. Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake, official Careers page, Salary table — open the source document
$68,099. UPD publishes a table headed “Completed Years of Service / UPD Equivalent Beginning Salary”, and its FIRST ROW IS **0 COMPLETED YEARS — $32.74 per hour or $68,099 annually**. The city states the annual itself. **THIS IS THE CLEANEST ENTRY SOURCE FOUND IN UTAH, AND IT IS WORTH LEARNING FROM: THE LATERAL-CREDIT TABLE ITSELF NAMES THE ZERO-YEAR RATE.** Where other agencies publish one DOE band and force a refusal, UPD prices every year of service separately — 0 years $32.74, 1 year $33.63, 2 years $35.52, rising to 11+ years $50.53 / $105,102. No prior service is required, beyond doubt: the department runs “continuous recruitment for Entry Level and Lateral Police Officers” and credits laterals one year per completed year of category-one LEO service, so the 0-year row is the no-prior-service rate by construction. Paid bi-weekly, 26 pay periods. EXCLUDED as above base: education incentive ($75/month master's, $50 bachelor's, $25 associate's), take-home vehicle, and the 401(k) contributions.
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 Unified 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. Unified starts at $68,099, so $3,188 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake officer make?
Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake starts a new officer on $68,099 a year, about $32.74 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 Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake, official Careers page, Salary table.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Utah?
It ranks #9 of 31 agencies we have verified in Utah — 22 pay less, 8 pay more in the state — and #858 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $291 below, and against other municipal agencies $3,165 below.
Compare with another department
Put Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake 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 UT
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Unified | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salt Lake City Police Department | Municipal | 589 | $76,315 | +$8,216 | #503 |
| 2 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,982 | +$7,883 | #518 |
| 3 | Taylorsville Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,941 | +$7,842 | #523 |
| 4 | Utah Highway Patrol | State | 536 | $75,878 | +$7,779 | #525 |
| 5 | Sandy Police Department | Municipal | — | $73,112 | +$5,013 | #621 |
| 6 | West Valley City Police Department | Municipal | — | $73,045 | +$4,946 | #625 |
| 7 | Cottonwood Heights Police Department | Municipal | — | $69,763 | +$1,664 | #785 |
| 8 | Murray City Police Department | Municipal | 82 | $68,890 | +$791 | #821 |
| 10 | South Salt Lake Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,997 | −$1,102 | #916 |
| 11 | Orem Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $66,768 | −$1,331 | #931 |
| 12 | Moab Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,747 | −$1,352 | #936 |
| 13 | South Jordan Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,435 | −$1,664 | #952 |
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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