News Story

Lowest-Paid Flint Officer: $17 Per Hour (Not $11.25)

The MLive news site erroneously reported that new Flint police officers earn just $11.25 an hour. MLive claimed that this was “the starting hourly wage for an entry-level officer at the Flint Police Department, according to a job posting for a new police officer recruit.” The figure that was reported is actually what candidates in the police academy earn while undergoing a required four-month-long course of study.

In response to an open records law request, the city of Flint released the base salaries of all its police department officers in 2017. The lowest (not including overtime) was $36,443 for a full-time officer, or $17.52 an hour based on a 40-hour work week. Clark Hughes, the interim regional news manager for The Flint Journal, The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times, said he stood by MLive’s reporting.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.