By Julian Roberts-Grmela, Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — More than a third of the city’s emergency medical technicians and paramedics are expected to leave this year as they continue to suffer from a crippling pay disparity that’s left some employees so destitute that they’re living in homeless shelters, union leaders said as they called on the City Council for some much-needed relief.
Speaking at a Council budget hearing for the FDNY on Friday, Oren Barzilay, the president of EMS Local 2507, said 1,500 medical first responders “are projected to quit the service in 2026.”
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The city only has 4,369 EMS members, who are the lowest-paid first responders in the five boroughs.
Such a devastating drop in personnel would certainly delay response times for medical emergencies, which have already increased by more than two minutes since 2021, Barzilay said.
“Because EMS is hemorrhaging EMTs, response times are up,” the union head said, adding that 80% of the 911 calls to the FDNY are for medical emergencies. “Medical-call volume is already at record high levels and only going up.”
“We are the unsung heroes of New York City — but we aren’t treated as heroes,” Barzilay said. “The strain on our EMS ranks is real. And it is made worse by the staggering pay disparities our EMS heroes are forced to endure.”
The union pitch for pay parity comes as the city marks the 30th anniversary of the shotgun wedding that merged EMS and FDNY into a single entity back in 1996.
To this day, EMS members start their career with about $5,000 less than firefighters, who are in the same agency, union members said.
Currently, an EMT coming out of the EMS Academy starts at a salary of $39,386, union officials said. After about five years, their salary increases to $59,000. By comparison, an FDNY firefighter earns $45,196 right out of the FDNY Academy and can earn around $110,000 after five years.
“McDonald’s employees make more in some cases,” Barzilay said about EMT starting salaries, adding that the continuing low pay has forced some of his members to take drastic steps.
“Some of our personnel have been forced to reside in homeless shelters because they can’t find affordable housing on an EMS salary,” he told the Council. “Let that sink in: EMS paramedics and EMTs working for the FDNY, saving lives in New York City, the greatest city in the world, living in homeless shelters. It is a stain on the honor of New York City to treat our medical emergency heroes this way.”
Contract bargaining sessions between EMS unions and City Hall are currently underway, but Barzilay and Vincent Variale, the president of the Uniformed Emergency Medical Service Officers Union, made their plea for raises to the City Council, which has been a longtime supporter of pay parity.
“EMS is staring down the barrel of a stunning 70% turnover rate within the next three to five years,” Variale said. “Paramedics simply cannot afford to remain paramedics and feed their families.”
In the past, the Council has proposed adding an additional $50 million to the FDNY’s budget to increase EMS salaries. Variale hoped that the Council does it again for the upcoming fiscal year.
“It is literally a matter of life and death,” he stressed. “We need to adequately compensate and resource our EMS first responders, so that they can properly protect the people of our city during health emergencies.”
Other budget requests included upgrading the FDNY’s facilities, especially city firehouses, some of which are well more than a century old.
While she has no say in the city’s budget negotiations with EMS unions, Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore told the Council that pay parity was a good idea for everyone involved.
“I certainly hope that we get EMS pay squared away and we achieve EMS parity at some point so we can increase our staffing,” she told the Daily News Friday.
When questioned by the Council, Bonsignore said EMS “staffing” is a priority concern when it comes to reducing response times.
“The fewer ambulances you run, the longer it takes to get an ambulance into an assignment,” she said. “(That) is why I’ve come out so strongly in support of parity. This is not just about being fair, but this is about stabilizing an EMS system for New York. We want to create an environment where people can come and stay and be a destination itself. They can come and have a long career and help us run ambulances so that we can continue to serve the public.”
Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R- Queens ), the chairperson of the Council’s Committee on Fire and Emergency Management, said the city “needs to have some type of pay equity for our EMS.”
Fixing antiquated FDNY facilities and making sure that these buildings get money that’s been earmarked for them also must be a priority, she said. In addition, boosting fire engine crews from the current norm of four smoke eaters up to five is critical, she said.
“Infrastructure is a top priority, but we also need to have a fifth firefighter to put our fires out faster,” Ariola said. “You heard Council members say they gave funding for certain items, and it still hasn’t been realized whether it’s generators or kitchens or bathrooms.”
“We’ve legislated these things,” she said.
How is pay and cost of living affecting EMS retention in your area, and what changes would make the biggest difference in keeping experienced providers on the job?
EMS1 readers respond
“Make agreements with housing complexes or apartment buildings to accept EMS based on their stations, pay and time on the job. Also putting EMS on the top of NYCHA lists since income is so low.”
“In 1985 when I suggested merging NYCEMS and FDNY (based on intense study of such Fire-EMS models around the country) the resistance came from across the spectrum NYCEMS. No one from bosses to basic EMTs wished to lose their autonomy. The EMS union locals, the bargaining units and the overarching union DC37 fought tooth and nail. And they still did when the merger was pulled off a decade later, rather than ditching DC 37 and joining the fire union which was the quickest way to parity.”
“Make the pay equal to nursing registered nursing salaries and you would see a boom in retention.”
“Generally speaking, most of the issues that EMS agencies experience are foundationally caused by low reimbursement for the services that we provide. We are stuck in a payment model that started in the 1970s and hasn’t changed much. We are still listed in the federal procurement system that CMS uses as ‘suppliers’ and not ‘providers.’ EMS is no longer run by funeral homes and law enforcement that had a ‘load and go’ mentality and were no better than a cab ride in many instances. We now have a rolling ICU that costs half a million dollars with highly trained and skilled paramedics and EMTs. We need to be reimbursed based on what we provide in 2026, not 1975. Once that happens, the conversations surrounding how to recruit and retain could be more robust. As it stands now, most conversations surrounding recruitment and retention are how to ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ by moving budgets around just to be able to keep the lights on in many agencies, especially rural locations where property and sales tax struggle to cover even 50% of the budget.”
“EMS has been under valued for a very long time. We did it to ourselves because we love to help people so much that we gave away our services for free through volunteering. EMS is a newest member of the public safety team and we are required to obtain more continuing education to maintain our certifications than other members of the team. EMS is not recognized by the general public as an essential service until they have a medical emergency. Then it is in our best interests to explain to the patient and their family what EMS is, what we do and where we are in the public safety system. Educating the voting public to the fact that EMS providers are leaving the field because they can not afford to be underpaid is our best option. EMS should be included in LODDB at the National level too.”
“I have been in EMS for 50 years. While a lot of patient care technologies have improved, the treatment of EMS workers has not. The problems for FDNY-EMS personnel are nothing new to me. The reality is a lot of firefighters regard EMS as ‘scut’ work and the EMS workers as the same. Until EMS is regarded and receives equal pay, benefits and a public safety pension, nothing will ever change. But that means the hiring criteria must be the same as it is for police and firefighters.”
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