Home › Police pay › Pennsylvania
Police pay in Pennsylvania
Entry pay in Pennsylvania runs from $45,098 to $103,421 a year. Verified at 24 agencies, each figure taken from that employer's own published document and dated on its page.
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.
The middle Pennsylvania agency starts officers on $58,100, below the national middle of $68,390 — 40th of the 50 states we can rank.
How Pennsylvania compares
Every figure below is a starting salary — what an agency pays an officer in their first year, before overtime. Each one is the middle agency of its group: half pay more, half pay less.
| Agencies compared | Middle PA agency | Middle US agency | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| All agencies | $58,100 | $68,390 | −15% |
| City departments | $72,607 | $71,302 | +2% |
| Sheriff's offices | $56,810 | $65,374 | −13% |
| State agencies | $55,206 | $65,166 | −15% |
The best-paid agency in Pennsylvania starts officers on 2.3 times what the lowest-paid one does — $103,421 against $45,098. Overall, Pennsylvania ranks 40th of the 50 states we can rank.
By level
Municipal8 agencies
Lowest$58,100
Middle$72,607
Highest$103,421
Across 8 city departments in Pennsylvania.
Sheriff10 agencies
Lowest$45,098
Middle$56,810
Highest$60,606
Across 10 sheriff's offices in Pennsylvania.
State5 agencies
Lowest$50,491
Middle$55,206
Highest$73,087
Across 5 state agencies in Pennsylvania.
Special jurisdiction1 agency
Amtrak Police Department$70,429
Only one verified here, so we name it rather than give a middle figure.
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.
Every Pennsylvania agency we have verified
Across the state line
What the middle agency starts on in the states Pennsylvania borders.
Also for Pennsylvania: What Pennsylvania agencies say about off-duty work Taken from each agency's own published policy.
Also: Every agency we have verified The statistics Municipal departments Sheriff's offices
Figures checked between 8 August 2026 and 20 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 the figure shown. Where an agency publishes both an academy rate and a post-academy rate, the post-academy rate is used. A missing agency has not been checked, not found to pay less.
Your shifts and your off-duty work, on one calendar
Save the rotation your agency runs and the year fills itself in. The off-duty jobs you take go in beside it, with what each one paid.
Scan to install
