Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$52,794
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$14,256
21.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,372
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$67,050
Kept after tax
$52,794
Worth in national money
$54,372
State rank
34
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Maine pays this job around $67,050 at the midpoint, 34 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 172 among 484 occupations Maine publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $67,050, tax leaves $52,794, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $54,372 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $69,830, since top earners drag the number up.
- For police and sheriff's patrol officers the Maine median is $67,050, ranking 34 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 172 of 484 in Maine places police and sheriff's patrol officers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for police and sheriff's patrol officers — median $67,050 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $52,794 retained, $54,372 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $69,830 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $55,930 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $67,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $91,270 |
| This salary | $67,050 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Maine | $52,794 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $56,000 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,255 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $62,992 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,006 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of police and sheriff's patrol officers in Maine earn under $67,050 and half over. The published range runs $55,930 at the tenth percentile to $91,270 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Maine's $52,794, worked from $67,050. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 172 of 484.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maine, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $54,372, the adjusted value of that $67,050 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 172 of 484 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for police and sheriff's patrol officers in Maine, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $55,930 to $91,270; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Maine take-home of $52,794, on $67,050 for work ranking 172 of 484 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 172 of 484 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maine, so $54,372 — the adjusted value of that $67,050 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 172 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $69,830, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $55,930 at the bottom tenth to $91,270 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Maine sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $54,372 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Maine adds its own income tax on top — which is why $52,794 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Maine is $69,830. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($55,930 to $91,270) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Maine's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $54,372 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $52,794 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.