EMS: Increase Pay for EMTs & Paramedics

You can’t turn on a TV these days, look at Facebook or check out the Internet without seeing protests around the country to raise the pay of McDonald’s workers to $15 an hour. Since it first began 2.5 years ago, the Fight for $15 campaign has mobilized tens of thousands of fast food workers, demanding a pay increase to $15/hour. It has won support from a wide swath of the public.

Bending somewhat to the pressure, on April 1, 2015, McDonald’s announced they were raising worker’s pay to $10/hour. Some believe McDonald's raised the pay as a result of a tighter job market, and others believe McDonald's was showing good will and smart management. It was not that long ago that company management insisted that their burger business could not pay more. Now it is apparently willing to make some financial concessions. Incidentally, the pay raise only applies to the 1,500 corporate-owned restaurants and not the other 90 percent of its approximately 14,300 restaurants in the United States. Franchise owners have not agreed to the $10 an hour rate increase.

The connection to EMS

The increase to $10/hour at corporate stores and silence from franchise owners has not stopped the protests. Workers continue to publically protest all over the country, demanding a $15/hour wage.

This made me think about all those doing EMS—fire and non-fire EMTs and paramedics who are earning less than $15/hour. The annual salary for an EMT or paramedic will vary depending on a number of factors, including whether they are public or private, location, years of experience and sometimes educational levels even play a part.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary for EMTs and paramedics was $31,270 in 2013. The best-paid 10 percent in the profession make approximately $54,710, while the lowest-earning 10 percent make approximately $20,420. Doing some simple math, I multiplied 40 hours in the week by 52 weeks, which equals 2,080 hours. Dividing the median salary of $31,270 by 2,080 hours, I got $15.03 an hour. So if the McDonald’s workers get their wishes of $15 an hour, they will be paid virtually the same median wage as an EMT or paramedic.

If you look at the lowest salary for EMTs and paramedics, it comes out to $9.81 an hour.

Further, in the seven years since the downturn of the economy in 2008, most EMTs and paramedics have gotten little or no raises, and their health insurance premiums continue to rise.

What’s it worth?

What is it worth to the public to know that help is coming when they have a heart attack? What is it worth to them to know that when their child has fallen off playground equipment, is drowning in a pool, is having uncontrolled seizures, is choking, been abused or beaten, or been ejected from a car that EMTs and paramedics are coming? No matter what the emergency, EMTs and paramedics are the first to respond—many times in less than four minutes in most major cities and suburbs.

EMTs and paramedics do everything they can to stand between the general public and all the evils of the world. We’ve seen so much death and destruction that some of us will never be the same again. We know the smell of burning bodies, and it will haunt some of us to our last days. Some EMTs and paramedics have lost their families to divorce, committed suicide, abused alcohol or used drugs because they didn’t know how to cope with what they’ve seen and experienced. EMT and paramedics are cursed, struck, spit on with saliva and blood, talked down to and treated as sub-humans, only to arrive at the station the next day to do it all over again. Over the course of their career, an EMT or paramedic working in a big city will probably be shot at, threatened with knives and other weapons, attacked by dogs—all for trying to keep their end of the bargain. I should know; all of those things and more have happened to me.

In exchange, the pay range for these dedicated servants can be as low as $20,000 a year with some benefits. That’s a pretty good bargain for the public, when you consider what some others are paid.

In sum

So when I see McDonald’s workers on the street corners protesting for $15/hour, I have little sympathy since I can see their job responsibilities of flipping burgers and dumping fries into a vat as far less than what my EMTs and paramedics do for the same salary.

GARY LUDWIG, MS, EMT-P, a Firehouse^® contributing editor, is the fire chief of the Champaign, IL, Fire Department. He has a total of 37 years of fire, rescue and EMS experience. He is a well-known author and lecturer who has successfully managed two large award-winning metropolitan fire-based EMS systems in St. Louis and Memphis. Ludwig is a licensed paramedic and has a master’s degree in business and management. He is past chair of the EMS Section for the IAFC. He is the author of the recently published book Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Prayers.