In 394 of 440 California cities, the median police officer out-earns the median teacher

The median LAPD officer made $149,462 in 2024 with overtime, according to State Controller pay records. Los Angeles Unified’s median teacher is paid $105,573 on the district’s 2024-25 salary schedule, which tops out at $122,706. Spread evenly over the year, the officer’s pay passes the teacher’s salary on September 15.

Bars from January 1 to the date the median officer has been paid the median teacher's yearly salary, in the 20 largest California cities with their own police. Oakland is first at May 18 and San Francisco second at June 7. Los Angeles is September 15 and Anaheim last at December 7. — Date the median officer passes the median teacher’s yearly salary.

Date the median officer passes the median teacher’s yearly salary.

We ran the same comparison for 440 California cities, matching each city’s median officer against the median teacher in the school district that serves it, and the officer was paid more in 394. In the typical city the officer made $37,634 more and had passed the teacher’s salary by September 28. Teachers out-earned officers in the other 46, which together hold about a million of the 32.5 million people in the comparison. The figures for all 440 cities are in a searchable table.

The earliest dates are in the Bay Area. Oakland’s median officer made $220,264, more than two and a half times the $82,716 paid to the median Oakland Unified teacher, so the officer has made a teacher’s yearly salary by May 18. San Francisco’s officers get there by June 7, and officers in San Jose and Long Beach by the end of July.

Overtime came to about 30% of officer pay in San Francisco and Long Beach. Without it, the officer still made more than the teacher in 312 of the 440 cities, home to 26.4 million people, and the median LAPD officer made $130,480, about $25,000 more than the LAUSD teacher. Teachers’ stipends for coaching and other extra duties aren’t in these figures, because the state’s salary survey covers only the salary schedule.

Map of 440 California cities, sized by population, blue where the median officer earns more and orange where the median teacher does. The 46 orange dots are small towns, mostly around Fresno and Tulare, in the Imperial Valley and in Marin. — The higher-paid of the two in each of 440 California cities.

The higher-paid of the two in each of 440 California cities.

Most of the 46 cities where teachers are paid more are small towns in the Central Valley and the Imperial Valley, and half of them have fewer than 13,300 people. Nine are in Fresno County, six in Tulare County and four in Imperial County, where the median teacher in Calexico is paid $129,769 and the median officer made $98,235. Five more are Marin County towns in the Tamalpais Union High School District, which pays its median teacher $139,109.

In Los Angeles County the officer made more in all 86 cities with figures for both. Among the 44 that run their own police departments, the gap runs from $8,600 in Signal Hill to about $101,000 in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. Santa Monica’s officers pass the teacher’s salary by July 6, the earliest date in the county. The other 42 cities contract with the Sheriff’s Department, whose median deputy made $173,539, more than the median teacher is paid in any district in the county.

Officer pay with overtime, officer pay without it and teacher pay in the 44 Los Angeles County cities with their own police. With overtime the officer is ahead in every city, from $215,453 in Beverly Hills to $117,582 in Sierra Madre. Without it the teacher is ahead in 12, among them Arcadia and Whittier. — Median pay in the 44 Los Angeles County cities with their own police.

Median pay in the 44 Los Angeles County cities with their own police.

Method. Officer pay is the 2024 median for full-year police officers and deputy sheriffs in the State Controller’s Government Compensation in California files, with overtime and without lump-sum payouts. Teacher pay is the median salary on each district’s 2024-25 schedule, from the state Department of Education’s J-90 survey. Each city is matched to the districts covering at least half of it, and where an elementary and a high school district split a city, the better-paying one is used. Sheriff contract cities get the countywide deputy median. South Pasadena and Pico Rivera are left out because their districts didn’t file the survey.