INDIANAPOLIS — Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputies received some good news this week – a pay raise is coming.
Deputies and detention deputies will receive a 3% salary increase beginning on Aug. 1.
The increase comes as the sheriff’s office is trying to keep staff levels up amid the low pay in the office. Sheriff Kerry Forestal said he hopes the pay increase will help get more people in the doors.
A recent report showed Marion County Sheriff’s Office employees are paid 21% below the rate of surrounding counties.
“We train them, and somebody else hires them,” Forestal said at a City-County Council committee meeting Tuesday. “We continue to do that. You can go out to Morgan County and make $12,000 more. You can go out to Shelby County and have one-tenth the number of phone calls you take as a dispatcher, you're going to take that advantage. And we train them, give them all the expert training, which makes it easier for another county."
Of the 126 people hired by the sheriff’s office since the beginning of the year, 76 have either quit or been terminated.
With the 3% raise, the starting salary for a sheriff’s deputy will be $36,177.
