While often undersold, policing offers another career path that doesn’t require a degree but can still provide workers with a solid salary, benefits, and pension. While the national average sits at $67,600, the salary average fluctuates between states, with cops in Nevada earning $73,660 versus cops in California earning $105,220. However, if you’re interested in this job path, you may want to stay away from the southern U.S. where the 10 lowest-paying states for cops are offering as much as $31,000 less than the national average.
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Once you make it onto the force, you can begin working your way up the ranks and the pay scale. This doesn’t necessarily mean leaving fieldwork for a corner office. According to Glassdoor, detectives in the U.S. average $77,341 per year, with an additional annual bonus of $6,010. The highest-paid detectives by state and police force are the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) at $102,352 and the City of New York at just over $90,000. The top brass in that city are some of the best compensated civil servants in New York, with eyewatering salaries of anywhere between $245,000 to $321,719 over the past decade.