New Police Pay Scales Analysis: A Rookie Cop's First Paycheck Beats a New Teacher's in 37 of 42 Big Cities

Police Pay Scales has published a new data analysis comparing starting base pay for rookie police officers and new teachers in large U.S. cities. The report, dated November 2026, uses official 2025–26 and 2026–27 pay schedules for 44 city police departments and the public school districts in the same cities, and compares base pay only.

The headline finding: in 37 of 42 big cities, a rookie officer's first paycheck beats that of a new teacher with a bachelor's degree. The largest gap is in Seattle, where a rookie officer starts at $117,792 and a new Seattle Public Schools teacher starts at $64,758, a difference of $53,034 a year. Teachers start ahead in only five cities: Atlanta (teacher ahead by $1,447), San Antonio ($2,548), New Orleans ($3,079), Chicago ($6,095) and New York ($12,734). In New York, a new teacher starts at $71,314 and a rookie NYPD officer at $58,580.

The gap can open before an officer is sworn in. A Seattle police recruit earns $79,678 a year in academy training, $14,920 more than a first-year Seattle teacher. Recruits out-earn new teachers in 19 of the 27 cities that publish academy pay.

In some cities, a rookie officer's first year also tops the highest teacher step. A new Tampa officer starts at $77,937, more than the $74,341 earned by a Hillsborough County Public Schools teacher with a master's degree on the highest step. The same pattern holds in Honolulu and Arlington. Compare the top step for a regular officer with the top step for a teacher with a master's degree, and officers lead in 19 of 29 cities with both figures. Time to the top also varies: Riverside officers reach top pay in 4.5 years; in Chicago it takes 25.

Method: Police Pay Scales matched each city police department in its data to the public school district in the same city, using the district named for the city or the largest district when a city has more than one. San Antonio uses Northside ISD, the largest district in the city. Phoenix is left out because no single district covers most of the city. All numbers are base pay from the official pay schedules linked on each department and district page. They leave out overtime, extra pay, longevity pay and benefits. Teachers are paid for a school-year contract and officers work all year; the report compares yearly base pay as published. Detroit police pay and Baltimore teacher pay are omitted where official starting or top-step figures were not in the data, and no figures are estimated.

The full city table, maps and a downloadable CSV are in the report. The data and charts are free to use with a link to https://policepayscales.com/research/cops-vs-teachers/.

About Police Pay Scales:

Police Pay Scales publishes official police pay schedules and data stories that compare those figures with other public-sector pay in the same cities.