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Yakima 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.
Yakima County Sheriff's Office starts at $73,466 a year — about $35.32 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $6,781 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $9,906 above the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Yakima, WA run about 4% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $76,891 would somewhere at average prices — $3,425 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 73 against a national average of 100, where goods are 105. 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 isYakima County Sheriff's Office reported 67 sworn officers and 27 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 Yakima County says about itself
The mission of the Yakima County Sheriff's Office is to enhance public safety, with integrity and professionalism. The office has been serving the people of Yakima County since 1863, and is a full service agency with a variety of duties and assignments, currently comprising 58 commissioned deputies, an animal control officer, 12 reserve deputies, six department of security officers, 12 dispatchers and 18 non-commissioned personnel. The Sheriff is responsible for the provision of police services in the unincorporated portion of the County, including patrol, criminal investigation, and emergency response.
What Yakima County does
Yakima County Sheriff's Office provides patrol, investigations, corrections, civil, court-security, search-and-rescue and specialized public-safety services. Official County materials emphasize professional service, protection of life and property and community partnership.
Yakima County’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Our patrol division works 12 hour shifts with every other weekend off. Detectives work an 8 or 10 hour shift.
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.
Twelves on patrol with alternate weekends off, eights or tens in detectives. Two patterns under one roof, and a move between them changes your whole year.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Yakima County official GovernmentJobs posting — Deputy Sheriff Entry — open the source document
$73,465.60. Current 2026 official entry recruitment; 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.
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.
How this level compares
Where Yakima 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. Yakima County starts at $73,466, so $9,901 above the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Yakima County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Yakima County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $73,466 a year, about $35.32 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 Yakima County official GovernmentJobs posting — Deputy Sheriff Entry.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Washington?
It ranks #75 of 92 agencies we have verified in Washington — 17 pay less, 74 pay more in the state — and #739 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $6,781 above, and against other county agencies $9,906 above.
What shifts do Yakima County Sheriff's Office officers work?
Our patrol division works 12 hour shifts with every other weekend off. Detectives work an 8 or 10 hour shift. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Yakima 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 WA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Yakima | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle Police Department | Municipal | 1,064 | $117,792 | +$44,326 | #38 |
| 2 | Redmond Police Department | Municipal | 81 | $110,435 | +$36,969 | #59 |
| 3 | Auburn Police Department | Municipal | 120 | $108,386 | +$34,921 | #68 |
| 4 | Lynnwood Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $106,371 | +$32,906 | #81 |
| 5 | Everett Police Department | Municipal | 207 | $102,516 | +$29,050 | #106 |
| 6 | Vancouver Police Department | Municipal | 226 | $101,832 | +$28,366 | #110 |
| 7 | Kirkland Police Department | Municipal | 108 | $101,218 | +$27,752 | #118 |
| 8 | Tukwila Police Department | Municipal | 76 | $101,064 | +$27,598 | #120 |
| 9 | Bothell Police Department | Municipal | 70 | $101,055 | +$27,589 | #121 |
| 10 | Mount Vernon Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $100,836 | +$27,370 | #125 |
| 11 | Kennewick Police Department | Municipal | 107 | $100,104 | +$26,638 | #128 |
| 12 | Edmonds Police Department | Municipal | 48 | $99,168 | +$25,702 | #140 |
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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