Where do firefighters get paid the most in California?

COVID-fueled overtime drove Los Angeles firefighter take-home pay up in 2021.

COVID-fueled overtime drove Los Angeles firefighter salaries up in 2021, making for a very lucrative year for many members of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

One captain topped the department payroll at $598,500, including overtime, base pay and benefits, according to a salary analysis conducted by Center Square.

In addition, 86 others topped the $400,000 mark.

Employees out sick with COVID-19 and firefighters suspended for not meeting the city’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement helped fuel the salaries.

The Center Square analyzed the department's payroll records from 2021, uncovering dozens of employees who made more than $400,000 in the one year. 

A captain in the department made $434,394 in overtime in 2021, pushing their gross pay to $598,532 to become the highest-paid employee in the city that year.

Another fire captain made $420,055 in overtime, pushing that person's gross pay to $593,314 in 2021. That person was the second-highest paid employee in the city, according to city payroll records. A firefighter with a base salary of $129,638 made $411,606 in overtime, making that firefighter's total compensation $554,056.

There were 86 employees in the fire department who made $400,000 or more in 2021. However, the highest ranking employee was not among those. The fire chief made $338,624, or nearly $250,000 less than the fire captain.

The Los Angeles Police Department has far more employees than the city's fire department, but the fire department's overtime was much higher.

The fire department's total payroll that year was $798.2 million. Overtime accounted for $244.9 million or about 31% of all the fire department's payroll costs.

The fire department paid more in overtime costs in 2021 than the police department, which paid $132.4 million in overtime that year.

The Los Angeles Police Department had 12,139 sworn and civilian police employees in 2021 compared to 3,643 sworn and civilian fire department employees. Even so, the fire department paid out more than $100 million more in overtime costs than the police department.

City documents show that the fire department has been working under minimum staffing mandates for years. Minimum staffing means that a certain number of employees have to be assigned to specific duties, and if the number falls below that minimum number, those vacancies must be replaced with overtime.

The fire department had fewer employees in 2021 than it did in the past two years. The total for 2021 was 3,643, down from 3,771 in 2020 and 3,715 in 2019, according to city records.

The mayor's office and the fire department did not immediately respond to questions about overtime pay.

Firefighters in some cities and states earn considerably more money than the average firefighter wage of $50,850, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That's because the highest-paid firefighter jobs tend to be on the West Coast and in the Northeast.

Highest-Paid Firefighter Jobs

Firefighters put their lives on the line when they protect communities from fires and other life-threatening dangers. Firefighters can be well paid for their work, but it depends on geography. The highest-paid firefighter jobs at the city and state level tend to be in areas where residents overall earn higher wages.

According to the BLS, in the metropolitan area of San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, the average annual wage is $111,550. The smaller metropolitan area of Vallejo-Fairfield, California, pays its firefighters an average annual salary of $103,850. The top five metropolitan areas with the highest-paid fire departments are all in California.

Sixth on the list is the metropolitan area of Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, located in Oregon and Washington, which pays its firefighters an average salary of $84,850. Coming in at seventh is Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington, where firefighters earn an average annual salary of $84,610.

Firefighter Location is Key

If you want to earn a top salary as a firefighter, then remember that seven of the top 10 highest-paid firefighter metropolitan areas are in California. Oregon and Washington each have one spot on that list, while the only East Coast top firefighter salary is in the New York-Newark-Jersey City metropolitan area in New York and New Jersey. There, firefighters earn an average of $81,470.

Firefighters in California and in most other locations have the opportunity to earn overtime. According to the Sacramento Bee, firefighters in 2017 averaged $42,000 in overtime earnings in a year's time and about $13,000 in other pay.

Firerescue1 also recommends that firefighters looking to earn a good salary consider cities in the South, the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest, where the cost of living is lower compared to salary. They found that municipal fire departments in Alabama, Florida and Idaho pay well when considering the cost of housing and job availability. According to Forbes, however, the three worst-paying states for firefighters are Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky, followed by Maine.

Firefighter Working Conditions

One reason firefighters make a good living is they work hard. Firefighters often work long hours, according to the BLS. Most firefighters work 24-hour shifts and have the next 48 to 72 hours off. Some firefighters work 10-hour shifts and have the next 14 hours off.

Firefighters spend many hours at a fire station, where they sleep, eat and work on equipment. Some provide public education about firefighting and fire safety. Although they wear protective gear, they have a high rate of injury on the job. Firefighters enter burning buildings to rescue people and put out fires.

Some firefighters are also responsible for providing medical care, the BLS states. When responding to an emergency, firefighters are connecting hoses to hydrants, operating the pumps that power the hoses and climbing ladders. Because firefighters are so important to communities, the BLS predicts that the job outlook for firefighters will grow by 5 percent through 2028, about as fast as average for all occupations.

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