DISCLAIMER – I used to work in Emergency Medical Services and I have a lot of compassion for firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement officers. I went to paramedic school with one of the firefighters in the photograph below.
The city of Vallejo, California is one of the first cities to face a tough tough decision of filing for bankruptcy protection. Many people voice outrage when they see how much police officers and firefighters make. What I don’t see is those people going to school, and trying to become cops or firefighters.
As an advocate for open access I support the public’s right to know how much our civil servants are making. SFGate has provided a database so that you can see how many firefighters are making over $100,000.00 a year. What you don’t know is whether the firefighter is a Paramedic, Captain, Engineer, etc.
Vallejo’s base pay for firefighters is more than $80,000 a year. Last year, 21 of them topped $200,000 in salary and overtime, according to city payroll records. (Review all firefighter salaries of more than $100,000 per year.)
How much should firefighters make? Your comments please.
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March 25th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Whoa! $80K per year?!? That calculates out to $27.47 per hour!!! You see folks, firefighters work almost 1000 hours per year more than the 40-hour Monday thru Friday types that sit around bad mouthing them. The work all night, holidays, and weekends. They have a significant chance to be disabled or killed as a result of their job. Is $27 per hour really that unreasonable? Since a plumber makes twice that, I think not.
Those $200K guys worked over 100 hours per week for that money, all year. They give up their private life to do that. No one is giving these people anything, they earned that money.
So…no, firefighters are not paid too much.
April 9th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
That’s insane for an associates degree. Professors don’t make that much, and when was the last fireman to die, since they have a “significant chance” of dying? Why do thousands apply for the job when it opens, yet don’t apply for the police department? They work 10 days a month and get to sleep on the job. Trucks don’t constantly leave the station like you make it sound. But they get to do a lot of working out and video games while being paid.
July 12th, 2009 at 8:17 am
It’s the retirment/pension that costs big time. Keep the salaries but cut the retirement in half, they aren’t risking ther lives then anaywyas
July 29th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Are you kidding me? When was the last fireman to die? Well, lets see. 118 firefighters died in the line of duty in 2008 to be exact. I couldn’t even calculate the injuries sustained each year. We get a lot of working out and video games? Well, we do try to work out each day, but I guess you would rather have an entire department of overweight firefighters responding to your house when it is on fire. We get to sleep on the job…yes. We work 24-72 hour shifts. Should we stay awake the entire time so we are so tired we can’t think which straight and administer the wrong drugs, or fall asleep while driving a 40,000lb fire engine? Why don’t you give me your phone number and I will call and wake you up for an hour each time we get a call after midnight so you can see just how much sleep we really get. Many firefighters have bachelors degrees or higher. I can tell you to reach 200k in a year, they worked 3/4 of the year. You do the math and break that down to the hour. If you worked at your job that much, you would probably make a lot more than that. The payroll for the City is the same whether one guy works a lot, or several guys pick up the overtime shifts. Just appreciate that you have men and women willing to risk their lives no matter what you get yourself into. It pays well, because it is a dangerous job. No matter what your views are, how bad you speak of us, we will still drop everything, respond to your emergency and do everything we can for you. Think about it.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
114 Firefighters died in 2008 and 118 in 2007. Is that ENOUGH for you, or do you want more?
November 26th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
There are deaths in every occupation. On per worker basis, firefighter less dangerous than other jobs.
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/09/04/americas-most-dangerous-jobs/
#6 Garbageman
#10 Taxi Driver
Not ranked: Firefighter
I don’t care how dangerous the job is anyway. If someone is willing to be paid minimum wage to test new bulletproof vest designs by wearing them, what business is it of mine? We live in a capitalist country so the salary for the job should be in line with market forces. It’s clearly not as the abundant supply of people willing to be firefighters has not caused a drop in wages.