Life-saving NYC medics treated like zeroes with low pay: ex-FDNY boss says
These heroes are being treated more like zeroes.
City emergency medical services workers continue to make measly pay – despite promises 25 years ago to provide them salaries comparable with firefighters and other uniformed officers, former Fire Commissioner Tom Von Essen said in a new interview.
“Nobody did anything for those guys. These guys have been getting screwed around for years. It’s so wrong. It’s disgusting,” said Von Essen – who oversaw the transfer of the EMS service from the public hospital system, Health + Hospitals, to the FDNY – to The Post.
The salary disparity is especially sickening after the city’s emergency medical technicians and paramedics put their lives on the line by pulling seriously ill, contagious COVID-19 patients from their homes and transporting them to hospitals during the peak of the pandemic, Von Essen noted.
The ex-fire department head said he understood that it would take several labor contracts over a number of years to achieve parity for EMS workers – but it never happened.
“In 25 years nothing was done to help them. Give me a break. It’s a shame,” Von Essen said.
Currently, salaries for EMTs range from $39,386 to $59,534 after five years, while the salaries for medics starts at $53,891 and max out at $75,872 after five years.
The starting pay for firefighters is $45,196, gradually rising to $55,101 after one year, $59,641 after two years, $65,267 after 3 years, $71,504 after four years and $110,293 after five years.
The low pay has some city EMTs and paramedics running for Nassau County, where salaries for medics start at $50,000, rising to $81,191 after one year. The top salary there rises to $142,730.
“Many of my members have left the FDNY and are now working for the Nassau County EMS, with many more applying there,” said Oren Barzilay, president of the EMS Local 2507 union, representing 4,300 paramedics, EMTS and fire inspectors.
“Nassau County EMTs and paramedics can earn up to $142,000 a year after 12 years on the job, with a starting salary of $50,000. After just one year, these medics will make $81,000, which is $6,000 more than a 20-year FDNY medic,” he noted.
“New York spends tens of thousands of dollars training each EMS professional but compensates them more like teenagers on a weekly allowance,” Barzilay added. “It’s why our first responder force is constantly experiencing massive brain drain!”
The union head previously noted that without a raise, some EMTS will be paid less than restaurant delivery-app workers starting in 2025.
Von Essen agreed there’s a “brain drain.”
“This is why EMS workers are leaving. They’re going into the firefighting service or going to the private hospitals,” he said.
Von Essen also served as the New York regional administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, working closely to provide more ambulances and equipment to FDNY EMS.
“During COVID, EMS did a phenomenal job. They saved lives,” he said.
When then-Mayor Bill de Blasio asked what he should do to aid emergency response, Von Essen said he suggested boosting pay for FDNY EMS workers – to no avail.
The state Senate will be holding a public hearing on retention woes with the city government workforce and the FDNY EMS staffing will be a major focus.
The contract for the ambulance workers expired last July – as they watched City Hall reach agreements providing multiyear, double-digit salary hikes and bonuses to 75% of the Big Apple’s workforce including teachers, police and firefighters, sanitation and other municipal employees.
When the EMS union endorsed Mayor Eric Adams in the Democratic primary for mayor in June of 2021, he promised to address the pay disparity for the essential workers.
“Our EMTs, paramedics, and fire inspectors deserve our City’s thanks and respect, but for years they have been shamefully denied basic pay equity,” Adams said when accepting the endorsement.
“As mayor, I will not stand for discrimination against workers, especially not the women and men who have put their lives at risk to save ours day after day.”
City Hall had no immediate comment Sunday, but previously told The Post via a statement from the FDNY, that it’s ready to negotiate a wage package with EMS ambulance workers.
“We were pleased we were able to reach an agreement with the union in the last round of bargaining that addressed their needs and was overwhelmingly ratified,” an FDNY rep said.
