What is a Fire Fighter worth?

[Txfirerescue]

This is a crack on volunteers, and regardless of your attitude the vast majority of this state is protected by volunteer fireman. I'm not a volunteer, but have lived my whole life in a community that is served by them. I have a heck of a lot more respect for someone that volunteers to help his fellow man than someone that gets paid to do the same job and still finds a way to complain about it.

Your are so correct, congratulations, you picked apart the whole conversation and have now redirected it AGAIN. Good job

[curtintex]

Not trying to pick it apart. I apologize for that. I respect the heck out of what you guys do and I appreciate y'all. I disagree with your outlook on y'alls pay, but I definitely respect your job. Good luck.

[Jeremy7306]

This is a crack on volunteers, and regardless of your attitude the vast majority of this state is protected by volunteer fireman. I'm not a volunteer, but have lived my whole life in a community that is served by them. I have a heck of a lot more respect for someone that volunteers to help his fellow man than someone that gets paid to do the same job and still finds a way to complain about it.

I'm glad you have a good volunteer dept and you support them. There are some volunteer depts out there that give the rest of us bad names. Myself and my dept think of ourselves as one of the best in our county. There are a few in our county that we have to work with that aren't worth a flip. My dept requires more than just a 60hr course. Ive almost got enough training to challenge the state test and be TCFP commissioned. Over half of my dept is TCFP and emt-b or above. And in oct almost 100% of us will be TCFP commissioned and at least ECA certified. We put a lot of time into training and we service our district very well. 2 stations with 25 Fireman right now. Our dept motto "Always Ready", and we live by that.

[Jeremy7306]

Your are so correct, congratulations, you picked apart the whole conversation and have now redirected it AGAIN. Good job

Sent ya a PM

[NannySlayer]

I'm glad you have a good volunteer dept and you support them. There are some volunteer depts out there that give the rest of us bad names. Myself and my dept think of ourselves as one of the best in our county. There are a few in our county that we have to work with that aren't worth a flip. My dept requires more than just a 60hr course. Ive almost got enough training to challenge the state test and be TCFP commissioned. Over half of my dept is TCFP and emt-b or above. And in oct almost 100% of us will be TCFP commissioned and at least ECA certified. We put a lot of time into training and we service our district very well. 2 stations with 25 Fireman right now. Our dept motto "Always Ready", and we live by that.

73 is "Always Ready" to follow 77 who is "Leading the Way.."


I had to.

[Jeremy7306]

73 is "Always Ready" to follow 77 who is "Leading the Way.."


I had to.

Hahahaha.. Don't talk smack lady! I was referencing to the east of us!

[NannySlayer]

Hahahaha.. Don't talk smack lady! I was referencing to the east of us!

I know! I know!

But, then again all of us wouldn't strive to be what we could be without 88! Let's just say 88 is the *legs* to all the departments. A great foundation, I might add.

[Jeremy7306]

I know! I know!

But, then again all of us wouldn't strive to be what we could be without 88! Let's just say 88 is the *legs* to all the departments. A great foundation, I might add.

Haha.. Yes mam.. 88 is our saving grace.. No disputing that fact.

[txfireguy2003]

To the poster who has asked repeatedly, "What do you think you're worth?" I'll give my answer...sorta. That depends. I understand that sometimes an employer is struggling financially, and can't afford to give raises, and in many cases, must make pay cuts or God forbid, lay some people off. Cities are really not much different than the corporate world in that aspect, if there's no money, there's no money, I understand this, as I'm sure anybody who has a family does. When daddy loses his job, Little Johnny may not get to play little league this year, just can't afford it. I understand that. What I don't understand is, when all signs point to there being a surplus of money in the city budget (in one case over 5 million dollars in a relatively small city, this was reported and admitted by city officials) and yet they can't spare a dime for cost of living adjustments, even though the cost of living has skyrocketed. So, with that all said, I can't give you a dollar amount to describe what I think my job is worth, what I can give you is a not so simple answer: Cities aren't supposed to make a profit, if they do, they need to lower taxes, or do something with that money. Now, my oppinion is that, when there is a surplus, you should either lower taxes (I'm all about lowering taxes when possible) or help your employees by adjusting their pay rates so that they can maintain the same standard of living they have in the past, or at least minimize the cuts they have to make. You could also increase services, but once you've reached a level of service that is considered acceptable, or better yet, above average, let's help the employees. One more time, I'm not just talking about cops/firemen etc, I'm talking about ALL employees, sanitation, water, streets etc. So, the answer to the question is, I think my job is worth whatever it takes to maintain at least the standard of living that I had when I chose to enter this profession, of course, this only applies if there is sufficient funds to do so. If the city is truly struggling to pay the bills, fine, but when they are reporting record breaking tax income, yet not allowing the employees to maintain or Heaven forbid better their lives, yes, I think that's wrong, especially when that money is being handed out to members of management while the blue collar guys have to make cuts.

[flywise]

It's a simple non- combative question.
In annual salary, what do YOU think you're worth?
I haven't got any replies to the question of pay, so I can't determine whether you're underpaid or (remotely possibly) overpaid.

Hey ROCKY, I'll answer the question
My base pay is 55k I usually make about 5k in over time a year
My healthcare (provided by the city ) cost the city 6.2k per year. I dont pay for it so I figure that into my salary as well as everyone shouldif they want an accurate reading of what they get paid.
lets total it up
$66200 Not to mention the retirement they ( the city) contributes or the many other things they do.

Every employee no matter where they work Private or public needs to add in the value of their health care, and retirement contributions and come up with the real number they get paid.
I am in no way under paid for the job I do And I venture to guess that just about no one in the fire service is. The question was originally asked " what is a firefighter worth" Well the answer is no more or less than the employer is willing to pay

[fletcherfor2]

sorry, logged in with hubby's account in error!

[M-2]

Hey ROCKY, I'll answer the question
My base pay is 55k I usually make about 5k in over time a year
My healthcare (provided by the city ) cost the city 6.2k per year. I dont pay for it so I figure that into my salary as well as everyone shouldif they want an accurate reading of what they get paid.
lets total it up
$66200 Not to mention the retirement they ( the city) contributes or the many other things they do.

Every employee no matter where they work Private or public needs to add in the value of their health care, and retirement contributions and come up with the real number they get paid.
I am in no way under paid for the job I do And I venture to guess that just about no one in the fire service is. The question was originally asked " what is a firefighter worth" Well the answer is no more or less than the employer is willing to pay

You're absolutely right, the health care benefit needs to be added to base pay, for sure. Do you pay anything toward medical/dental each month or does the city cover it all? Also, in re: retirement for firefighters/city workers: I think a person can retire as early as age 50, assuming they started at age 20 and have 30 years service in. What percentage of your original salary will you receive, and will the city continue to pay for health care?

I ask because my SIL retired at age 50 or 51, and she gets a nice pension yearly and all her health care is covered (City of Arlington). I tell ya, if I had known all that when I was younger, I would have gotten a city job of some kind and would have been retired for 13 years already!

[LWArchery]

Well said.

[Txfirerescue]

I think everyone has gotten completely off topic, this not a $ amount the ORIGINAL POSTER was mentioning.

The question was what is a FF worth? With regards to other other professions that save lives and property in the sense that other professions don't do any of the above.

A better question might be what is a FF/medic/PO worth if other jobs such as a baseball player pay more? I understand that may have been a horrible metaphor since athletes generate their revenue...but you get the point.

This thread should never turned into what it did.. And I think the topic totally went out the door when tempers raged.

[Garrett G]

Firemen need heros too, thats why every city has Linemen! Argue all you want but I have been to many a call where fire wont do a thing until the power is killed and who does that, a lineman.