By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In part 4 of our on-going wage series we now turn to the rankings of County Deputy and City Police Officer rankings throughout the State. This series always produces both expected and unexpected information about the relative standing of jurisdictions.
In this article will provide you some discussion of the wage rankings but for the full rankings, you’ll need to explore our Premium Website . If you’re not currently a Premium Website subscriber you can review our services Cline and Casillas Premium Information Services and contact Karla Rava at Cline and Casillas and she’ll explain how you can become one. For current premium subscribers below are links to some of the additional available Police and Deputy Wage Rank reports:
Police Officer 5 Year No Degree 2016 Ranking
Police Officer 25 Year BA 2016 Ranking
Deputy Sheriff 5 Year No Degree 2016 Ranking
Deputy Sheriff 25 Year BA 2016 Ranking
For County Deputies, King County remains at number 1, with a wage gap between Number 2, Pierce County that is 13% smaller than it was three years ago: $1300 a month at the reported maximum 25 year BA level. At the 5 year level Benton maintains its number 4 position jurisdiction at $50 above Whatcom. Snohomish is the only unsettled contract for 2016 in this top 10 list.
Some small counties have crept up the list. San Juan County ranks 9th on the 5 year list and has maintained a ranking of 4th on the 25 year BA pay level for a second year. At the lower end of the 5 year rank Mason County crept up to number 10, with a settlement that includes premium increases and a wage settlement above the CPI. At the 25 Year BA level Mason County falls back to 12th. Chelan County has a substantial longevity and BA premium that lifts it from 21st on the 5 year list to 10th on the 25 year BA list.
Below is a listing of the top 10 ranked 5 year Deputy Sheriff wages for Counties. For the full listing including the 5 year and 25 Year BA ranking of all 39 counties, wages and wage date see the Cline and Casillas premium website.
A review of the city police officer rankings also shows many of the same both expected and unexpected results.
Seattle tops both the 5 year no degree and the 25 Year BA list. Some previous high paid jurisdictions like Redmond, Kent and Vancouver now lag far behind their historic rankings. And Spokane continues to fall behind, now ranked only 35th (falling from 23rd last year) despite being the 2nd largest City in the State. While 109th populated city Black Diamond is ranked second for 5 year no degree wage. It drops to 12th at the 25 Year BA level. This indicates how factors such as Assessed Valuation per capita and not solely population play into wage settlements. Below is a list of the top 10 of 133 Washington cities ranked by their 5 year no degree wage.
For the specific wage numbers, please review the Charts available on our Premium Website. We report the wages for purposes of this summary survey at two levels, 5 year No Degree and 25 Year BA and indicated the wage and last contract year that wage is reported from.
We have performed a more in-depth analysis of these results and compared them to important contributing factors such as Population and Tax Base. In some of the articles ahead in this series, we’ll undertake a detailed review of how those factors may contribute to your wage ranking.
