Campus Safety Releases Additional Salary Survey Findings

March 14, 2007 CS Staff

LOS ANGELES – In response to reader requests, Campus Safety magazine has released additional findings from the publication’s salary survey, which appeared in the November/December 2006 issue.

The supplemental data and conclusions include:

Nonsworn officer starting pay:

Nonsworn starting salaries are generally lowest in the South. Of the responding departments that pay $18,000 or less (15 percent overall), 44 percent are in the South. Seventy-two percent of all responding agencies in the South pay their nonsworn officers $22,000 or less compared to 46 percent nationwide.
The Northeast and West generally pay higher starting wages to nonsworn officers than their southern and Midwestern counterparts. Fifty-two percent of agencies in the Northwest and 41 percent of the agencies in the West pay more than $25,000.
Of the Midwest respondents, 64 percent pay $18,001-$25,000.
There is little or no difference in nonsworn officer pay when comparing educational campuses to healthcare/other campuses.
There is a tendency for larger educational institutions to pay slightly more than smaller campuses. All of the responding schools, universities or colleges with 20,000 or more students pay their nonsworn officers more than $18,000 per year.
There also is a slight tendency for larger healthcare institutions to pay more than their smaller counterparts. Still, 50 percent of respondent organizations with 800 or more beds pay $18,001-$22,000. A novice nonsworn officer at a hospital with 200-399 beds is just as likely to be paid less than $18,000, $18,001-$22,000, $22,001-$25,000 or $25,001-$30,000 (23 percent for each pay category). Fifty-four percent of healthcare campuses with less than 200 beds pay $22,000 or less.

Sworn officer starting salaries:

Departments in the South generally pay their rooky sworn officers less than other regions of the country. Fifty-seven percent of all responding departments in the South pay their sworn officers $25,000 or less. Forty percent pay $25,001-$35,000.
The Midwest and Northeast are at the middle of the pay scale. Twenty-six percent, 23 percent and 38 percent of responding Midwest agencies pay $25,000 or less; $25,001-$30,000; and $30,001-$35,000, respectively. Sixty percent of all responding departments in the Northwest pay their sworn officers $25,001-$35,000.
Campus police departments located in the West report generally higher starting salaries for their sworn officers. Of all the departments that pay greater than $40,000, 47 percent are in the West. Sixty-five percent of responding departments in the West pay novice sworn officers more than $30,000.
Generally, as a department’s size increases, so do the starting salaries of its sworn officers. Eighty-two percent of departments that have more than 100 employees pay their officers more than $35,000. In contrast, more than three-quarters (78 percent) of departments that have 10 employees or less pay their sworn officers $30,000 or less.
Educational institutions, for the most part, pay their sworn officers better than healthcare campuses. Twenty-seven percent of schools and universities pay their rookies more than $35,000, compared to 14 percent of healthcare institutions that pay that amount.
Size of an educational institution’s population doesn’t necessarily translate to better officer pay. Forty-five percent of schools with 5,001-9,000 students pay their sworn officers $25,000 or less, compared to 24 percent with less than 3,000 students and 15 percent with 3,001-5,000 students. Still, all of the respondent schools with more than 30,000 students pay their novice officers more than $25,000.

Chief, director, assistant chief, deputy chief, assistant director or the equivalent pay statistics:

The South trends toward the lower end of the pay scale for this category as well. Of the respondents who make $40,000 or less, 42 percent are from the South. Of the southern respondents, 81 percent make $70,000 or less. Fifty percent in the West, 61 percent in the Northeast and 64 percent in the Midwest make $70,000 or less.
Department size matters when it comes to chief/director pay: 50 percent of respondents with more than 100 employees, and 43 percent of those with 51-100 employees make more than $100,000. Only 3 percent of respondents with 50 or less employees are paid that amount.
Seventy-one percent of respondents with 41-50 employees make $50,001-$80,000. Seventy-four percent of respondents with 31-40 employees make $60,001-$100,000. Seventy-one percent of respondents with 21-30 employees make $50,001 to $90,000. Ninety-one percent of respondents with 10 or less employees make $70,000 or less.
Size of the educational institution’s student population affects the pay in this category. Sixty-two percent of respondents from schools with more than 30,000 students are paid more than $80,000 compared to only 19 percent of respondents from schools with 30,000 or less.
Size of the healthcare institution also affects the pay in this category. Twenty-six percent of respondents responsible for hospitals with 400 or more beds make more than $100,000, compared to 3 percent of respondents with less than 400 beds. Only 9 percent of respondents with 400 or more beds make $50,000 or less. Twenty-five percent with 200-399 beds and 66 percent with less than 200 beds make that amount.
For the most part, healthcare/other and educational institutions pay their respondents in this job category the same.

Respondent job satisfaction (most respondents identified themselves as being chief, director, assistant chief, deputy chief, assistant director or the equivalent):

By years of experience:

Respondents with more than 20 years in campus safety (27 percent overall) rate their job satisfaction the highest with 55 percent indicating “Excellent” and 42 percent as “Good.” Zero percent in this category rate it “Poor.”
Respondents with six-10 years of experience are the most likely to say their job satisfaction level was “Fair” (16 percent). Still, 48 percent rate it as “Excellent,” and 36 percent rate it as “Good.”
Respondents with one-five years or 11-15 years of experience are the most likely to rate their job performance as “Poor” (4 percent). The overwhelming majority (89 percent), however, reports they are happy with their jobs.

By salary level:

Respondents who make $40,000 or less are the most likely to rate their job satisfaction level as “Fair” (11 percent) or “Poor” (8 percent). Still, 68 percent of respondents in this pay grade rate their job satisfaction as “Good.” Less than 1 percent of respondents who make more than $40,000 are unsatisfied with their jobs.
Respondents who make $80,001-$100,000 are the most likely to rate their job satisfaction as “Excellent.” Seventy-nine percent of those who make $80,001-$90,000 and 67 percent of those who make $90,001-$100,000 are very happy with their jobs.
No respondents who make more than $100,000 rated their job satisfaction as “Fair” or “Poor.” Forty-eight percent rate it as “Excellent,” and 52 percent rate it as “Good.”
Of those who make $70,001-$80,000, 35 percent rate their job satisfaction as “Excellent,” and 54 percent rate it as good. Twelve percent rate it as “Fair” or “Poor.”
Of those who make $60,001-$70,000, 14 percent have a job satisfaction rate of “Fair” while 43 percent say it’s “Good” and another 43 percent say it is “Excellent.”
Of those who make $40,001-$60,000, 40 percent rate their satisfaction as “Excellent,” 53 percent as “Good” and 7 percent as “Fair.”

By previous experience:

Respondents who indicated they had previously worked in municipal or state law enforcement are the most likely (11 percent) to rate their job satisfaction as “Fair.” Still, 46 percent from municipal and 35 percent from state rate it as “Excellent” while 42 percent of municipal and 53 percent of state rate it as “Good.”
Those with a background in federal law enforcement (
55 percent) or military law enforcement (52 percent) are most likely to rate their job satisfaction as “Excellent.”
Those from a county law enforcement background were least likely to indicate the highest level of job satisfaction. Twenty-eight percent rate it as “Excellent,” while 64 percent rate it as “Good.”
Respondents from corporate/private security management are generally happy with their jobs. Forty-four percent rate their job satisfaction as “Excellent” and 48 percent rate it as “Good.”

“We encourage all of our readers to participate in the 2007 salary survey, so we can continue to provide this type of valuable information,” says Robin Hattersley Gray, executive editor of the magazine. “Be on the lookout for the May/June 2007 issue of Campus Safety magazine, which will include this year’s questionaire.

_______________________________________________________

About the survey: A one-page survey was placed in the May/June 2006 issue of Campus Safety magazine. Additionally, an online version of the questionnaire was E-mailed to subscribers. In total, there were 207 responses.

Approximately 20 percent of respondents identified themselves as being located in the West; 28 percent in the Midwest; 22 percent in the South and 30 percent in the Northeast. Nearly 70 percent of those who completed the survey indicated they work for universitites or school districts. One out of every four survey respondents said they are employed by hospitals. The remainder identified their institutions as “other.”

The abridged version of the original article can be found online at How Much Are Your Campus Officers Worth?.

If you appreciated this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!