By Bill Carey
EMS1
NEW YORK — New York City Uber drivers working 32 hours weekly for 50 weeks earned an average of $52,900, far exceeding the $39,386 base salary of first-year city EMTs, according to an October report from the ride-share company.
EMTs spend hundreds of hours learning life-saving skills but must work five years to reach a maximum base salary of $59,534, plus benefits, the New York Post reported.
Paramedics: don’t settle for a living wage. Instead, be audacious and demand a thriving wage for your lifesaving career of community service
September 17, 2024 02:58 PM
·
“I have friends who have left this job to do Instacart, to do Uber, to do Lyft,” Local 2507 President Oren Barzilay said. The union represents the city’s 4,100 EMTs and paramedics.
Uber drivers, whose pay is regulated by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, have received five raises since 2020, including a 3.49% inflation-based increase in March.
City EMS workers have been without a contract for over two years. Barzilay says they seek “pay parity” with other uniformed services, a promise Mayor Eric Adams made in 2021 but has yet to fulfill.
Tracking the state of EMS through research, and uncovering strategies to elevate paramedic safety, wellness, career development and operations
The Greene County board tabled putting ambulance service out for bid as Boyd Memorial Hospital warns a $263,000 funding cut could force it to scale down to a single ambulance, with the current contract set to expire Nov. 9
November 01, 2026 08:00 AM
Union President Jeremy Garrett says closing Station 82, which hosts ambulance crews and covers the airport and Columbia Basin College areas, would force three-person teams and expand response times as Pasco works to close a $14 million budget gap
November 01, 2026 12:00 PM
The Austin-bound-for-Bahamas Learjet 60 entered a steep dive after reporting icing and turbulence, with the pilot radioing a mayday before crashing near Palm Beach County homes
November 02, 2026 07:06 AM
Pagosa Springs braced for the San Juan River to crest above its historic 1911 flood level as Sedona crews conducted rooftop and helicopter rescues, with the region seeing months’ worth of rain in just a couple of days
November 02, 2026 07:35 AM
