Any discussion about Firefighter compensation on a national level must begin with the acknowledgement that, of the estimated 1,160,450 local Firefighters in the U.S. (2015), 814,850 (70%) are volunteers ₍₁₎. In other words, they perform the duties and carry the responsibilities of a fire department for free. The other 30 percent of those Firefighters are paid. This article is about them. Did you know that in 33 states the mean salary of these brave men and women is less than a living wage? Did you know that in 14 of those states, their mean salary is more than $10,000 less than the living wage?

The analysis of mean salaries for paid Firefighters revealed that, in 33 states Firefighters making the mean salary are not paid a living wage. In New Hampshire, West Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Louisiana, Kansas, and Utah, the mean salary for Firefighters is between $10,000 and $15,000 less than the living wage for their respective states.

In Vermont, Maine, North Carolina, and Minnesota the gap between mean salary and living wage is even wider. The mean salary in Vermont is $15,117 less than the living wage; in Maine, $17,925 less than the living wage; in North Carolina it is $15,245 less; and in Minnesota the mean firefighter salary is $17,345 less than the living wage.

In some states, the mean Firefighter salary is just a little more than the living wage for the respective states. In Massachusetts for example, the mean salary is $59,650.00 and the state’s living wage is $59,560; a difference of only $90. The mean Firefighter salary in Ohio is $44,970 and the living wage there is $45,853. Firefighters making the mean salary in Ohio are being paid $883 more than the living wage. In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Montana, Firefighters making the mean salary are being paid between $2,000 and $3,000 more than the living wage.

The mean salaries in Illinois, Texas, Nebraska, Missouri and Alaska are between $3,000 and $5,000 more than the living wage. Mean Firefighter salaries in New York, Pennsylvania, and Nevada are between $5,000 and $10, 000 more than the living wage. Mean salaries in the west are the highest in the country, with Oregon mean salary at $10,630 more than the living wage; California at $14, 475 more than the living wage, and Washington, where the mean salary is $17,659 more than the living wage.

The impact of Firefighters not being paid a living wage will vary, of course, depending upon the category in which the family falls. If the spouse of the Firefighter also works, they probably do not have much of a problem making ends meet. The impact of not being paid a living wage is lessened by the spouse’s additional income.

Editor's Note: We used mean salary Data from BLS and the Living Wage data from MIT’s living wage model; if you'd like to scrutinize our methology, then please click here for an in-depth article detailing it.

_{1. https://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/fire-statistics-and-reports/fire-...}

About the Author

Mike Kennedy is a frequent contributor to At the Ready Magazine. He is a former Airborne Ranger Infantryman and after the Army spent fourteen years working for the U.S. Army Maneuver Battle as an Experimentation Manager, where he routinely worked with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Robotic Systems-Joint Project Office, Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center and numerous other government labs to develop and test new equipment and concepts designed to make Soldier’s lives better. At the Battle Lab, Mike managed and supervised the execution of experiments, data collection procedures, analysis of raw data and presentation of results in written form for Army decision makers. He personally planned, coordinated, and executed more than 80 unmanned systems experimentation events. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from American Military University. Mike’s professional training includes the Test and Evaluation Basic Course, Project Management, Scheduling and Cost Control, Advanced Techniques of Project Management, Fundamentals of Systems Acquisition Management, Capabilities Based Planning, Business Case Analysis, and the Army Capabilities Development Course.