Public Safety Survey (2008)

California Statewide Survey Results

Corrections Group

The table below presents the summary of the data collected in California relative to the Corrections Group classes. Twenty California counties and the Federal Government provided this data.

Compares the State's salary and compensation to the medians for all jurisdictions surveyed

Classification	State of CA Maximum Base Salary	Survey Median Max Base Salary	State Relationship to Median	State of CA Maximum Total Compensation	Survey Median Max Total Compensation	State Relation-ship to Median
Correctional Officer	$6,144	$4,890	20.41%	$7,770	$6,868	11.61%
Correctional Sergeant	$6,892	$6,401	7.12%	$8,624	$8,309	3.65%
Correctional Captain	$9,082	$9,552	-5.18%	$10,582	$12,665	-19.68%

This data reveals that the maximum Total Compensation of the State of California class, Correctional Officer, exceeds the median maximum Total Compensation reported by survey respondents for the Correctional Officer benchmark by 11.61%. Note that the percentage of salary differential has decreased between the base salary and Total Compensation data for this benchmark class. This is because Sheriff's Departments are responsible for jails in California, and the sworn peace officer employees of those departments tend to receive a variety of components of compensation beyond base salary, even though the specific county may be utilizing a classification lower than its Deputy Sheriff classification to perform Correctional Officer duties. Again, this underscores the importance of considering Total Compensation when comparing compensation levels, particularly in the public safety area.

Also note the trend reflected in the Total Compensation State relationship to median percentages between the Correctional Officer, Correctional Sergeant, and Correctional Captain benchmark classes. While numerous Sheriff's Departments utilize a journey level class to perform Correctional Officer duties that is lower than their journey level Patrol Officer class, this tendency decreases with movement up the chain of command and assignment of responsibility for providing supervision and management at the Sergeant and Captain levels.

For the Correctional Sergeant benchmark, the State of California class maximum Total Compensation exceeds that reported by survey respondents by a modest 3.65%. The reduction in the percentage difference compared to the Correctional Officer benchmark data, results from the fact that some Sheriff's Departments that utilize a class at a lower level than their Deputy Sheriff to perform Correctional Officer duties, utilize their regular Sheriff's Sergeant classification for first line supervision within the jail. Since the Sheriff's Sergeant class tends to be more highly compensated, the percentage differential between the State of California class and the survey data decreases for this benchmark.

This circumstance is much more prevalent at the Correctional Captain benchmark level. The vast majority of responding counties utilize their regular Sheriff's Captain classification to provide this level of management within their jails. (Note how much higher the median maximum Total Compensation for the Correctional Captain class is than the Correctional Sergeant class, as reported by California county respondents.) As a result, the data shows the State of California Correctional Captain Total Compensation 19.68% below the survey median maximum Total Compensation for the Correctional Captain benchmark class.

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California Statewide Survey Results

• Patrol Group
• Corrections Group
• Other Law Enforcement

Updated October 6, 2008 at 12:05 PM.