A group of FDNY emergency medical services members rallied outside City Hall on Wednesday to protest a longtime pay gap between EMTs and firefighters and police officers.
Despite the salary differences, emergency medical services members respond annually to around 1.5 million of the 1.8 million emergency calls the FDNY receives.The following is a breakdown of salaries for FDNY emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters and New York City police officers, according to the New York Daily News:
- EMTs: Starting pay is around $35,000, increasing to $50,000 after five years.
- Paramedics: Starting pay is about $48,000, increasing to $65,000 after five years.
- Firefighters: Starting pay is around $45,000, increasing to $110,000.
- Police officers: Starting pay is about $42,000, increasing to $85,000.
Salaries for police, however, can hit more than $100,000 because of shift differentials, overtime and other benefits.
Community activists and religious leaders joined the FDNY EMTs at the rally, and some members spoke about the unfairness of salaries, especially in light of the difficulties of the job.
“This work is just as dangerous,” Queens EMT Christell Cadet told the Daily News. “I’ve been spit on, attacked by patients and come in contact with deadly pathogens in some of the worst neighborhoods. And yes, I go into fires, I went into a fire to save an injured firefighter who needed assistance, and yet we are not treated equal."
The EMS union and Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration have yet to agree on a new contract that would include a salary bump. Other New York City lawmakers, however, have backed such an increase and are urging the mayor's office to close the gap, despite de Blasio explaining the pay difference by calling EMS work "different" from that of police and firefighters.
“Justice and fairness begins at home,” Oren Barzilay, president of the union for EMTs and paramedics, told the Daily News.
