Are City Firefighters Overpaid?

[jpmulk]

Love that we are talking about first responder pay and not those poor underpaid politicians, actors, and athletes. That would be silly.

 

[Lawnboi]

Here’s a question - if wages dropped 40% would the force still be full? I think it might be.

The point about EMS earning crumbs compared to firefighters is a good one… are EMS underpaid or fire overpaid? Yeah it’s not the same job but the trauma can be similar.

Anyway I’ve never worked and will never work a job where any moment my life may be on the line but I just found my dinner table discussion interesting. Of course our city has union!!

I’d be making 15$ an hour if that were the case.

That’s fire/paramedic.

They can’t even fill positions with qualified individuals in most of our state.

I’d be less worried about the union and more worried about your cities/municipalities local government.

 

[Jon Boy]

I always found it interesting when being a ff for the forest service that people would have such a hard time with us staging and waiting for a fire all the while praising their local fire department for doing the same thing and making a shit load more money than us.

For the record I rarely vote in favor of any levy that requires a raise in taxes to increase funds for any sort of government agency. Local, state, federal etc


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[magtech]

Really?

Walk a mile in their moccasins or for that matter in any first responder’s shoes.

Fire, EMS and law enforcement personnel all are subject to similar scrutiny when it comes fo pay.

Walked many miles in the mil and never met anyone making 200k/year. Seems like theyre double paid and then some. Just match their pay to non-travel nurse jobs and bam. Win win.

The same ones complaining we need to support out fd/le are the same crowd saying nurses are special. Blah blah blah.

Let me know why fd should be paid more than someone with a bsn, please.

 

[Hnthrdr]

I always found it interesting when being a ff for the forest service that people would have such a hard time with us staging and waiting for a fire all the while praising their local fire department for doing the same thing and making a shit load more money than us.

For the record I rarely vote in favor of any levy that requires a raise in taxes to increase funds for any sort of government agency. Local, state, federal etc


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Structural FF that stage on a fire are a joke. Wildland and structure are two very different beasts. Done both, I enjoy being out in the woods, but I am glad I work for a very aggressive structural department

 

[mtnwrunner]

Man, hunting season must be over.
Thank you to ALL you first responders.....and no, you are not overpaid. The general public has NO idea of what you see, what you do and the toll it takes.
Again, thank you all.

Randy

 

[Fire_9]

So what should these guys be doing instead? Should they be training to doing something productive every minute of their shift? Are we worried they burned $3 in diesel to get there? WTF? What's the rub?

The general public has no idea what these guys do to make their living. The amount of shit LEOs/EMTs/FFs have to deal with in their career is mind boggling. I've only gotten a glimpse into this world as I've been a volunteer/part paid FF for 14 years. But I've seen enough to know that most are not overpaid. There are always going to be the exception, but the vast majority are far from being overpaid. I find it funny nobody talks about the rest of the positions in the City being overpaid. Would $260k be considered too much for the Bend Parks and Rec Director position?

 

[MuleyFever]

There are a couple people here that just don't get it I guess.

Just got off a 72 hour shift. Sorry, but I had to run to the store once with my crew. Please forgive us

 

[sbaker0029]

I'll throw my opinion in on the matter from my experiences.

When I was younger I worked as a stock/bag boy at a local grocery store that was the go to store for one of the four local stations in town.
The guys would always come in the fire engine, the entire crew. When they'd pull in you'd always here some old curmudgeon mumble on about the wasting tax dollars by shopping on the clock and sitting around all the time.
These guys were always super friendly. The ones not shopping would help people carry groceries out (my job but I didn't care) and show kids (including me) around the engine.
Numerous times they'd have to leave a half full cart of groceries for me to put back.
I would look at the items and always wonder if they got to eat dinner or lunch or whatever that day.
Every once in awhile I'd think about what people would say and wonder how they got to shop and hangout while getting paid well and only working a few days a week.
Never once did it really bother me or get to me that they were wasting tax dollars and should be doing things differently or getting paid less.

Fast forward:
I work at an industrial plant, they offer bonuses for joining the Emergency Response Team. A paid Volunteer fire department within the plant if you will.
I think cool my chance to do some cool firefighting and first responder stuff and learn a new set of skills on the company dollar.

We got sent to the firefighter training facility at LSU. What an eye opening experience.

If you have never put on bunker gear and crawled into a pitch black smoke filled room that is so f*king hot if any piece of exposed skin touches something, you're getting at second degree burns, then I feel you have no right to ever say anything about how much these guys get paid.

The guys that do this full-time don't make enough from what I've experienced. That was just from the training and not actually responding to a call where someone is inside and the house is being engulfed.

After a few years on the ERT I realized my life mattered more to my wife and kids than trying to save the plant that was my livelihood for an extra $1500 a year plus the overtime for training and a few other benefits like extra life insurance.

TLDR: They get paid for their knowledge and skill sets that they and everyone around them hopes to the good lord they never have to use. And that pay still isn't enough

 

[philos]

Do threads like this correlate with the end of most hunting seasons? Are we gonna be looking at manscaping 2.0 in the next few days?

 

[Sadler]

I think they’re underpaid. All first responders are. The nonsense they have to deal with from the general public on top of risking life, limb, and sight on every call proves that.

 

[mtnwrunner]

Do threads like this correlate with the end of most hunting seasons? Are we gonna be looking at manscaping 2.0 in the next few days?

Yup, that was my earlier comment. SMH
And heaven forbid, I hope they ain't manscaping on duty........

Randy

 

[iamthenick]

All these dudes in here crying, go get on the job if its so easy and the pay is so great lol

 

[Brontosaurus]

My buddy works for the city fire department...
My grandpa was a fire chief for 20 something years in California.

They do not get paid enough.

My buddy deals with PTSD and job trauma. He had to pick up a second job for awhile just to feed his family.

My grandpa died from kidney failure linked to chemical exposure from spending his life fighting fires.

Some of the responses on here are pretty shocking. Ugh.

 

[Silver Wings]

And heaven forbid, I hope they ain't manscaping on duty........

Randy

Ummm…I’ve got some bad news

 

[thejones]

These discussions provide nothing but a retreat into ones own corner, due to feeling attacked. Why further the divisiveness in this country. Look at it from this standpoint, the average USA salary is $59,428 (Yahoo.com) and the average firefighter salary is $48,092 (Talent.com), so it seems firefighter are below national average.

Unless you do the job you would not understand can be applied to this, and that can be applied to all jobs. I'm sure everyone here thinks they have the "hardest job", and no one else works as hard as they do. Meanwhile, how many of the replies to this thread were posted by individuals at work, while being paid? Be honest now, you know you have taken a quick break to "recharge" your focus, after all, no one understands the stress of your job.

We are all in the same boat, unless there are some CEO's, investment bankers, congress persons or other high paid profession posting on this thread. See how easy that was, deflection is the best. Let's support the people out making a living and growing our communities, not tearing them down for whatever agenda we have been told to support.

Full disclosure, I am a paid firefighter by profession, and I am typing this while trying to balance on top of my huge pile of cash.

Please send me a message and we can discuss my job choice, after all, I have the hardest job because I am in my shoes.

 

[Hnthrdr]

$200k/yr to drink beer all day seems underpaid to me, especially when you consider that they’ll be forced to retire in 25 years with only 95% pension (on highest grossing years which include saved up vacation) with which to buy the beer

Where is paying 200k a year for a Ff? Sign me up! Also I don’t know any dept that are allow guys to roll OT or vacation pay into there pensions anymore, that happened years ago and from what I understand was done away with

 

[7mm-08]

I want the OP to tell us what he does for work so we can all opine on his salary scale...

 

[JFK]

Walked many miles in the mil and never met anyone making 200k/year. Seems like theyre double paid and then some. Just match their pay to non-travel nurse jobs and bam. Win win.

The same ones complaining we need to support out fd/le are the same crowd saying nurses are special. Blah blah blah.

Let me know why fd should be paid more than someone with a bsn, please.

Two different jobs. Nurses can, and often do, make more than FF’s here in Ca. Per diem nurses at some hospitals out here are making over $130/hr. I support nurses making good money. They earn it. They are two different jobs though, so I don’t really see it having any relevance to the conversation.

 

[bmart2622]

Walked many miles in the mil and never met anyone making 200k/year. Seems like theyre double paid and then some. Just match their pay to non-travel nurse jobs and bam. Win win.

The same ones complaining we need to support out fd/le are the same crowd saying nurses are special. Blah blah blah.

Let me know why fd should be paid more than someone with a bsn, please.

I will speak to this since I am both an RN and a FF/paramedic. I made substantially more as a flight nurse than I do even now being an officer at my FD. I work longer shifts with less resources and more/higher expectations as a FF than I did as a nurse. So should I make more as a FF than a nurse, maybe not, but I definitely shouldn't make less either.