South Carolina / Department of Public Safety / Law Enforcement Officer IV
Job-title file
Enforce laws and maintain public safety — patrol, respond to incidents, investigate crimes, and make arrests.
228 employees hold this title in Department of Public Safety. Median total compensation for the role is $86,028, above the department median of $73,444.
What the records show
How total compensation varies among the 228 people in this role. Even for one job title, pay differs with seniority, step, overtime, and tenure. Each bar is a pay range; the far-right bar collects the highest earners.
Compared with the local labor market
Across all employers in South Carolina, the median wage for Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers — about 12,930 people — is $58,070. Department of Public Safety pays a median base salary of $76,946 for this role, 33% above that figure — about the 87th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
The bar is the range of annual wages for Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers across every employer in South Carolina, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Department of Public Safety’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers — about 670,520 people — is $76,210. Department of Public Safety’s median base salary is in line withthat national figure, about the 51st percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the South Carolina range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 975 of 976 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at Department of Public Safety is $76,946, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare departments
Law Enforcement Officer IV is held in 20 South Carolina departments. In Department of Public Safety, the median of $86,028 ranks #12 of 20.
Median total compensation for the Law Enforcement Officer IV role in other South Carolinadepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.
Compare jurisdictions
This role is reported in 3 jurisdictions. In South Carolina, the median of $74,011 ranks #1 of 3. See Law Enforcement Officer across all of South Carolina →
Median total compensation for comparable Law Enforcement Officerroles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.
Record list
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Law Enforcement Officer IV/Department of Public Safety
Christopher Burnett is a Law Enforcement Officer IV at Department of Public Safety. 2026 total compensation came to $90,528.