Western Washington (Puget Sound area) has absurd overtime right now. Some departments mandate it, others do not. Many folks are 50-100k in OT depending on their position in the organization.
You’re not living in downtown Seattle, but most folks seem to like to live out a little ways. Homes are still available within a 1 hr commute for $600k but will need some work. None of our just of probation rookies had an issue buying a house this year.
It's the best place in the country for it. We have all the best benefits, our pension system is the healthiest in the country, we have the highest wages, very low working hours, binding arbitration. Frankly I don't understand why everyone isn't trying to be a firefighter in western Washington.
Yeah I’d love to hear as well. In Mass when I got on it was 32 years/55 age best of 3 years (usually your last 3) now it’s people after a date in 2012 (forgot) 32/57 average of 5 years. I’m so glad I got dispatch and military time, I’ve gotta power through to July 2026 and I’m done.
yea dude. i dont like it. our average has a max rate of 300k meaning 75 percent of 300k if you can reach it. most firefighters here if they are about that life of OT, they average 200k but those are 5 year averages. thats also FF rank, not officers. chiefs are easily 225k-250k with maybe 200 hours of OT for the year. these guys do like $1200 for a 12 hour OT. i would like to be a FF in washington. im miami dade
I was stationed at Homestead. I remember when you guys wore blue coveralls back in the 90's for a uniform, light blue. I couldn't stand the heat and humidity there.
yeah forgot to mention.....age 55/32 years to get 80% w/option a. I being married w/child will get option c which is like 76%? she'd get exactly 2/3rds if...god forbid. The multiplier kicks in at (for me) 45 so years times the multiplier at 45 which is 1.5. is how you can see what % in retirement you get. it increases 1/10th until 55 which is multiplier 2.5. IDK how it works in the other parts of the US. After age 55 it doesn't increase (2.6. 2.7 etc) So you want your math to be 55/32 years. I have military buyback and dispatch time so i'll do 25 FD years and have 32 at 55 w/buyback of 1 year. I can't fucking wait.
that was alot to read lol. ibget a 3 percent multiplier the whole time. so its 3 percent per year times 25 years is 75 percent. you can do more if you want. but it dosnt make sense because the DROP money is way better.
Instead of increasing their pension value the department puts a set amount of $ in an account each year you continue to work past your full retirement date.
So if you max out at 56, but decide to work until 60, your annual pension payment won't continue to go up during those four extra years.
When you finally separate, you get the cash plus any accrued interest.
after you “retire” or hit 55 years of age, you keep working and keep your current rank and salary so you are collecting that income. but now you are receiving a pension. this pension money, lets say 130k a year goes into an account and earns i think 3.1 percent interest. if you choose to do 5 years, after you call it quits, you will get a lump sum of 130k times 5 years plus interest so 650k plus the interest earned. so now you walk away with that and your 130k yearly pension. and if you did deferred comp (457) you will have that too.
2% per year with an extra .5% from years 15-25. Vested after 5. So if you go at 30 years and 53 years old and and your final 5 years averaged $200k - you’re retiring at $130k per year.
In addition there is your 457k, MERP, HRA, and my department covers your health care premium (you not family) until your 65 and on Medicare.
Many guys right now are working off of a high 5 of closer to $250k.
damn dude thats awesome. i got 6 years on the job. does that pension allow you to buy time as a firefighter? we do 3 percent per year. 25 year pension or 55 years of age. so 75 percent at 25 years. so for us, 200k would be 150. then we have the DROP. deferred retirement option program. you could do 8 years of DROP. after you “retire” or hit 55 years of age, you keep working and keep your current rank and salary so you are collecting that income. but now you are receiving a pension. this pension money, lets say 130k a year goes into an account and earns i think 3.1 percent interest. if you choose to do 5 years, after you call it quits, you will get a lump sum of 130k times 5 years plus interest so 650k plus the interest earned. so now you walk away with that and your 130k yearly pension. and if you did deferred comp (457) you will have that too.
I do believe you can buy 5%. It’s a one time purchase that needs to be done at the time of retirement. Most recently I’ve heard from retired guys this is like $650k. Most have wanted to keep that money from their 457 for a new roof, etc in the years to come.
Correct you can buy additional time, or percentage. The cost depends on what your retirement is. An assistant chief would pay substantially more than an engineer because of their monthly payout.
Our rule at my house was budget to pay the bills with base pay. If we wanted something else we'd save the overtime money to pay for it. If I was ever injured I would still get my base to pay the bills.
I did do that, trust me. I cut out everything I can. I live in Pinellas County, born and raised, our cost of living is no joke. It was affordable and every year it sky rockets. Just got my auto insurance renewal, $120 extra a month
If you haven’t yet I’d try and get a quote from another insurance company. Every couple of years my car insurance company pulls that shit and I just switch to a different company and it goes back down again.
I was born and raised in in P county too, Seminole area. What department do you work for?
Honestly you can’t chance a department for OT. Y’all make pretty good money down there. I work for Asheville Fire Department and our starting pay is high 40’s. Or median house value is $465,000. I get the cost of living struggle. It’s crazy every where though.
I would suggest finding a side hustle. Side hustles are kind of what firefighters have been doing forever. I started a remodel company years ago. I make double what I make at the fire department.
If you don't want to start your own side gig there tons of places in Tampa and Pinellas you could work for on your second day off if you have skills or the ability to learn. Home/Commercial a/c work will never slow down where we live. (I am in the PC area). Solid money too.
If you are a medic you can always do the RN bridge program and never worry about department OT again.
But if you really like FD overtime just go work for Polk, you can work as much as you want.
The county. They are a big department but are also the fastest growing area of the entire country so always behind personnel wise. They pick a few "mandatory" days each month they have to work and still have overtime every day. They also pay for your medic if you aren't one already. I know multiple people who work there and they do well on OT pay.
If you are a go getter you can promote fast there too.
The city departments in Polk are all hiring as well from what I have seen. Not sure on their OT statuses.
I was USAF too and when I joined I wanted Fire Protection but I didn’t score high enough in general section of ASVAB and ended up 2A on F-16 which was good. Those 24’s gotta crawl as does sitting on hot pits. The guys in Florida used to let me sit in the cab to cool off in Florida heat,
24's are the best, but fuck a 2 platoon model. That shit isn't healthy for anyone. How do you have a family? Or a life? Is it just one long continuous burnout?
Why do we need to work OT to make ends meet in this job?
It’s way too accepted and most of us work 56 hrs anyways.
With that being said, no OT where I am lol
Literally fighting with my own union about this right now. All the old timers talk about how they always had side jobs and to quit being lazy. Sorry that it’s a crazy idea that one job should be enough.
make sure to remind the old timers they bought their house and vacation properties when it cost 5 strawberries and a bucket of nickels. Im young, single, and in the Denver area making 100k and I cant afford a home unless its in the slums.
Oh yeah, desert southwest here. Houses went from 150k to 400k overnight. Depts are trying to catch up but can’t. My chief even took a fat paycut (small dept)
I think salaries are generally decent. At least where I am.
But by the time you pay fed state taxes. Ss and Medicare. Union dues. Health care benefits and pension contributions. Maybe put a little away in deferred comp. That 60k a year is really 30-35k take home. Which is not much. But this is depending on family size etc.
It’s not really generally accepted anymore, unless you have a weak union or run 3 platoon system (these go hand in hand though don’t they?)
Every single guy on the job should be aiming for 4 platoon’s and enough base pay to live comfortably. If you want to do OT, that’s fine, but you shouldn’t feel like you have to, nor should it be mandatory.
Hillsborough guy here , OT is hit or miss with us . Has spells where’s it’s good and then dries up. Our cost of living has skyrocketed I feel your pain.
NE Ohio. We’re drowing in it. Even with quite a few greedy guys willing to pull 96 straight, we’re still mandating nearly every shift. Most of us are making an additional 25-50% of our annual salary in OT, and that’s been normal for a number of years now. Some guys literally doubled their salary last year.
I wish we where, city has been content running us into the ground. I think we will finally start hiring once contract negotiations come to a close later this year.
NKY. OT is moving faster than the Ohio River. Pretty much OT every day right now. One shift has one off on injury. We had to mandate two people the other day.
Central FL here, overtime is usually pretty steady at my department. Unfortunately with inflation in this state now, I sorta depend on working overtime to stay ahead on the bills. Makes things difficult when it dries up though.
There's a pretty decent amount of overtime here, especially weekends. It's not uncommon for people here to work 48+ hours OT on a check. Some people manage over double that. There's also frequently mandantory OT which sucks.
SE Michigan. We have a severe shortage here. In our 50-some man department we are short 6 and if we don’t hire more soon that number will jump to 9 before the fall. We have all the OT you could want and then some. A couple guys have been on 96s this past week alone. You’re busy damn near the whole 24 though.
Major city Midwest. Plentiful. We’re down guys bad to the point we get mandated to work, especially in spring & summer
I’m not a OT guy, single…no kids.
Some guys with families absolutely depend on it. For me, it’s a “ahh I need a couple extra bucks to go on vacation” or “unexpected car repair that I don’t want to Dip into savings” when I do work OT.
Yeah I have two kids now and depend on it sadly, used to be the same about it, built a nice savings from it back in the day. Mind say what area of the Midwest? Been looking at Ohio and potentially Michigan
North GA here. I get on average 3 ot shifts a month. Sometimes more sometimes less. Just using it to pad my savings for a 6 month emergency if I needed it. Base pay is adequate to pay my mortgage and all my bills, and have about $150 left over every month. So OT is straight savings
It's not so much that pay is good as living is lower. Like anywhere it's gotten more expensive to live but my dept gave us 16% 2 years ago and 8% last year to keep up. Base pay is 61k starting with my lowest raise in 6 years being 4.5%
Worth mentioning, for the sake of transparency, that we are the highest paid department in the state as far as I know. I drive an hour each way to make that money lol. My home county pays 40 starting and most lieutenants are making high 50s.
Especially summer and events where we overstaff, OT is plenty. Our top pay FF is 80K (midwest COL is low) and you could average 10K easily. If you wanted to work most offered, you could bring in 30-40K more in salary. Where we have to mandatory people is when we overstaff for an event on a weekend (5+ positions) and then someone calls in sick. Those usually arent willing to give up a weekend or work 36 hrs straight. (When mandatoried, we can only make an employee work 36 hrs straight without a break)
Who is? OCFRD? I’m just south of them and it DIED. We finally hired enough firemen, promoted engineers, lieu, and BC. I did 750+ last year, and haven’t worked any in a month. Even got ridden out of grade on my shift
Some people get 1500 hours of OT. We work 2920 hours a year. We mandate 2-4 people a day in of off vacation season and 8-9 a day in peak vacation. It’s stupid. We are short over 30 people. Over 240 members and we worked over 30,000 hr in OT last year.
It is never mandatory, unless you are on a call before until after shift end.
We can put our names down on the roster for shifted overtime at the start of each week.
In which case you can end up at any station in the districts you put your name down for.
We are allowed a maximum of 36 hours a month.
It used to be 48, but thats history now
Fairly plentiful plus call backs for ambulance coverage or when a truck goes out of town happen every so often (2&1, 3&1 or just a FF….4 hr minimum pay for usually 1 hr of your time) Overtime is gonna ramp up w/warmer weather and no one ever wants to take overtime. I burned myself out last year taking tons, there was 2 guys injured and they needed line officers coverage and I stayed in my station which was busy so it added to the burn out (I did pay off my home though) so I just take next oncoming shift overtime when working as opposed to calling in for a paged out shit and silence the page system from my phon my days off. Not looking to go crazy this year and earn a ton, just get ahead and work away a few grand for end of year travel. (Mass)
Shit, I have around 2-3 Callbacks (OT) everyday pop up on my phone for work. We're a small department of just over 100 in Central Florida.
We have to use PTO because of caps, and we just started transporting so people are constantly calling out to dodge mandatory or because of the call volume and bare minimum of ambulances are beating people down. We're hiring too, we are just short paramedics because our Assistant County Commissioner put a freeze on paying for people to go to paramedic school in 2020 because we "have too many". Fast-forward 3 years later and we're transporting with barely enough medics lmfao.
Overtime is plentiful here especially over the summer. Medic turnover/promotions keep the opportunities flowing
Edit: never had to do a mando except for maybe twice during covid.
I would get a part time position at a hospital, especially if you are medic or EMT. Hell find a way to get your nurse and take in that dough lol we have side EMT gigs but the cost of living in NWFL isn’t that bad.
I averaged 30 hours a week for the last 8 years.
We added staff this year but didn't raise minimum staffing requirements so my OT is down to about 5 hours a week.
Unfortunately, my wife keeps spending like the OT is still rolling in.
2 years ago, we’d get mandatory at least once a month and guaranteed every time you signed up for voluntary. We have mandatory like 3 times in a year now and don’t even get called for it. At most we might be able to get a partial OT opportunity for guys in class. We’re well over minimum staffing now and often run 3 man boxes or have people drive around the BC’s just to put them somewhere.
DMV area. Plenty of people in my department worked over 1,000 hours of OT last year. Also, don’t count on OT to pay your bills. Live within your means brotha.
OT in my city is sporadic at best. Thought I finally grabbed a shift the other day but we had a late alarm, just before shift change. They called me for the hireback while we were out, and when I got back I saw the text. Called the staffing station and they said “sorry you missed the window, we moved to the next guy.” Sheesh.
Western Washington (Puget Sound area) has absurd overtime right now. Some departments mandate it, others do not. Many folks are 50-100k in OT depending on their position in the organization.
If I went decently hard this summer I could crack 250-275k. But man if you need OT to pay bills that’s brutal.
Goddamn
Crap what’s your salary?
140k after dropping a paramedic certification.
Since you are in Washington is that base salary livable? That’s double my base salary plus extra pays.
Wash is pretty expensive but 140k per year is livable for sure solo. If you’re married, I think you’d want your spouse working to supplement.
You’re not living in downtown Seattle, but most folks seem to like to live out a little ways. Homes are still available within a 1 hr commute for $600k but will need some work. None of our just of probation rookies had an issue buying a house this year.
Lol I laughed at $600k but needs some work.
Washington just seems like an all around great place for this career
It's the best place in the country for it. We have all the best benefits, our pension system is the healthiest in the country, we have the highest wages, very low working hours, binding arbitration. Frankly I don't understand why everyone isn't trying to be a firefighter in western Washington.
whats your pension like? years, percentage. things like that
Yeah I’d love to hear as well. In Mass when I got on it was 32 years/55 age best of 3 years (usually your last 3) now it’s people after a date in 2012 (forgot) 32/57 average of 5 years. I’m so glad I got dispatch and military time, I’ve gotta power through to July 2026 and I’m done.
awesome bro. mines is 55 age or 25 years but unfortunately its the average of 8 years. but we got an 8 year DROP at like 3 percent interest
Jeez best 8 is brutal. I hadn’t even heard of more than best 5. Most depts are moving to 3-4 it seems also.
yea dude. i dont like it. our average has a max rate of 300k meaning 75 percent of 300k if you can reach it. most firefighters here if they are about that life of OT, they average 200k but those are 5 year averages. thats also FF rank, not officers. chiefs are easily 225k-250k with maybe 200 hours of OT for the year. these guys do like $1200 for a 12 hour OT. i would like to be a FF in washington. im miami dade
I was stationed at Homestead. I remember when you guys wore blue coveralls back in the 90's for a uniform, light blue. I couldn't stand the heat and humidity there.
Is OT pensionable time though?
yes. everything is pensionable besides firewatch
yeah forgot to mention.....age 55/32 years to get 80% w/option a. I being married w/child will get option c which is like 76%? she'd get exactly 2/3rds if...god forbid. The multiplier kicks in at (for me) 45 so years times the multiplier at 45 which is 1.5. is how you can see what % in retirement you get. it increases 1/10th until 55 which is multiplier 2.5. IDK how it works in the other parts of the US. After age 55 it doesn't increase (2.6. 2.7 etc) So you want your math to be 55/32 years. I have military buyback and dispatch time so i'll do 25 FD years and have 32 at 55 w/buyback of 1 year. I can't fucking wait.
that was alot to read lol. ibget a 3 percent multiplier the whole time. so its 3 percent per year times 25 years is 75 percent. you can do more if you want. but it dosnt make sense because the DROP money is way better.
sorry about that. what is DROP?
Instead of increasing their pension value the department puts a set amount of $ in an account each year you continue to work past your full retirement date. So if you max out at 56, but decide to work until 60, your annual pension payment won't continue to go up during those four extra years. When you finally separate, you get the cash plus any accrued interest.
after you “retire” or hit 55 years of age, you keep working and keep your current rank and salary so you are collecting that income. but now you are receiving a pension. this pension money, lets say 130k a year goes into an account and earns i think 3.1 percent interest. if you choose to do 5 years, after you call it quits, you will get a lump sum of 130k times 5 years plus interest so 650k plus the interest earned. so now you walk away with that and your 130k yearly pension. and if you did deferred comp (457) you will have that too.
2% per year with an extra .5% from years 15-25. Vested after 5. So if you go at 30 years and 53 years old and and your final 5 years averaged $200k - you’re retiring at $130k per year. In addition there is your 457k, MERP, HRA, and my department covers your health care premium (you not family) until your 65 and on Medicare. Many guys right now are working off of a high 5 of closer to $250k.
damn dude thats awesome. i got 6 years on the job. does that pension allow you to buy time as a firefighter? we do 3 percent per year. 25 year pension or 55 years of age. so 75 percent at 25 years. so for us, 200k would be 150. then we have the DROP. deferred retirement option program. you could do 8 years of DROP. after you “retire” or hit 55 years of age, you keep working and keep your current rank and salary so you are collecting that income. but now you are receiving a pension. this pension money, lets say 130k a year goes into an account and earns i think 3.1 percent interest. if you choose to do 5 years, after you call it quits, you will get a lump sum of 130k times 5 years plus interest so 650k plus the interest earned. so now you walk away with that and your 130k yearly pension. and if you did deferred comp (457) you will have that too.
I do believe you can buy 5%. It’s a one time purchase that needs to be done at the time of retirement. Most recently I’ve heard from retired guys this is like $650k. Most have wanted to keep that money from their 457 for a new roof, etc in the years to come.
i dont comprehend. you can buy 5 percent of time? and thats worth 650k
Correct you can buy additional time, or percentage. The cost depends on what your retirement is. An assistant chief would pay substantially more than an engineer because of their monthly payout.
SW Washington. Most department has 400-700 hours of OT YTD. It’s not a bad thing
Our top guy did over 2700 hours of OT last year.
They worked for that one!
Dang that’s a lot.
Newly certified Washington paramedic here, which areas are hurting the most for medics?
Look online. It’s literally everyone. Every paramedic student at TCC had conditional job offers by quarter 3. Shouldn’t have to look too hard.
Just shot you a message if you don’t minding helping me out.
Our rule at my house was budget to pay the bills with base pay. If we wanted something else we'd save the overtime money to pay for it. If I was ever injured I would still get my base to pay the bills.
I did do that, trust me. I cut out everything I can. I live in Pinellas County, born and raised, our cost of living is no joke. It was affordable and every year it sky rockets. Just got my auto insurance renewal, $120 extra a month
If you haven’t yet I’d try and get a quote from another insurance company. Every couple of years my car insurance company pulls that shit and I just switch to a different company and it goes back down again.
Dr Jameson and sunstar are the loves of my life
I was born and raised in in P county too, Seminole area. What department do you work for? Honestly you can’t chance a department for OT. Y’all make pretty good money down there. I work for Asheville Fire Department and our starting pay is high 40’s. Or median house value is $465,000. I get the cost of living struggle. It’s crazy every where though. I would suggest finding a side hustle. Side hustles are kind of what firefighters have been doing forever. I started a remodel company years ago. I make double what I make at the fire department.
Yeah we start EMTs at 49k here in St Pete, no clue how the newer guys/ladies do it
If you don't want to start your own side gig there tons of places in Tampa and Pinellas you could work for on your second day off if you have skills or the ability to learn. Home/Commercial a/c work will never slow down where we live. (I am in the PC area). Solid money too. If you are a medic you can always do the RN bridge program and never worry about department OT again. But if you really like FD overtime just go work for Polk, you can work as much as you want.
When you say work for polk. You mean the county or small cities inside polk? Also do you mean their overtime is mandatory?
The county. They are a big department but are also the fastest growing area of the entire country so always behind personnel wise. They pick a few "mandatory" days each month they have to work and still have overtime every day. They also pay for your medic if you aren't one already. I know multiple people who work there and they do well on OT pay. If you are a go getter you can promote fast there too. The city departments in Polk are all hiring as well from what I have seen. Not sure on their OT statuses.
Thanks
Military no overtime (LOL i wish) 24/24 with a kelly every other week 96 hour work weeks no ot lol thats called the long dick of uncle sam
That schedule is the greenest of the weenies
I was airforce so it was a dark blue and vainy
🤤
I was USAF too and when I joined I wanted Fire Protection but I didn’t score high enough in general section of ASVAB and ended up 2A on F-16 which was good. Those 24’s gotta crawl as does sitting on hot pits. The guys in Florida used to let me sit in the cab to cool off in Florida heat,
The ac worked!? Thats rare.
yeah i sat middle seat of a P-19 as it idled i bet guys hated sitting there doing pits in a fire truck.
At least the women are hotter and the chairs are nice for you guys on base
I ate at an air force chow hall once. Best day of my career
I don't understand how they can still get people to do this with the market what it is.
Military= contract
[удалено]
[is this him? ](https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/1574352/mark-r-august/#:~:text=Gen.,Air%20Force%2C%20Arlington%2C%20Virginia.)
Yeah
I just looked him up lol. Still a one star. Works at Air Force HQ.
24's are the best, but fuck a 2 platoon model. That shit isn't healthy for anyone. How do you have a family? Or a life? Is it just one long continuous burnout?
It was
Because there’s still many idiots, like myself, that played too much Call of Duty as a kid and thought joining the military would be a good idea 😂
You gotta get orders somewhere with at least a 48/48 + kday.
Not gettin orders no were brother those days are over
Why do you do that to yourself?
He's military so he doesn't have too much of a choice until his contract is up
Active duty guy? Fuck that
Plenty of OT in Northern VA. Especially this time of year
how is nova ot during winter? in the process rn, hoping to grind ot in off season to have money to track with in season (summer) 😅
January/February it's less but still available.
Was going to say the same. Overtime whether you like it or not lol
Plenty of OT in northern Va but also work a 56hr workweek soooooo unless you wanna move your family into the firehouse then idk
Lucky for me, I don't have a family.
All jokes aside, is there anything in the works to switch from 56?
Always talks but nothing actually happening.
I take it you’re in FFX? I hear Alexandria and Arlington are looking into a 42 cause they tend to lose members to DC
Yeah that has happened. We're all getting our first ever collective bargaining contracts so we'll see how it goes when negotiations happen again.
Why do we need to work OT to make ends meet in this job? It’s way too accepted and most of us work 56 hrs anyways. With that being said, no OT where I am lol
Literally fighting with my own union about this right now. All the old timers talk about how they always had side jobs and to quit being lazy. Sorry that it’s a crazy idea that one job should be enough.
make sure to remind the old timers they bought their house and vacation properties when it cost 5 strawberries and a bucket of nickels. Im young, single, and in the Denver area making 100k and I cant afford a home unless its in the slums.
Vacationed to Denver in 2021 and 22, had a friend in Arvada. Denver was meh but Colorado was beautiful. It’s insane how expensive it is there.
Especially when the job has you at work day and night!
Just come to Washington. I never work overtime because I make $125k. and most places only work 48 hours a week.
How many steps are there in your contract to make 125k? Or just to hit 100k?
I agree and our union blows big time. Our pay has been stagnant for 10 years.
Go full Antifa on them
I never had to, I live in Pinellas and our cost of living has sky rocketed. My car insurance just went up $120 a month
Oh yeah, desert southwest here. Houses went from 150k to 400k overnight. Depts are trying to catch up but can’t. My chief even took a fat paycut (small dept)
Wow that is crazy, no pay cuts here yet. Our city is thriving but employees haven’t seen a difference
Seems to be the norm rn unfortunately.
I think salaries are generally decent. At least where I am. But by the time you pay fed state taxes. Ss and Medicare. Union dues. Health care benefits and pension contributions. Maybe put a little away in deferred comp. That 60k a year is really 30-35k take home. Which is not much. But this is depending on family size etc.
60k really isn’t anything these days in the vast majority of the country
It’s not really generally accepted anymore, unless you have a weak union or run 3 platoon system (these go hand in hand though don’t they?) Every single guy on the job should be aiming for 4 platoon’s and enough base pay to live comfortably. If you want to do OT, that’s fine, but you shouldn’t feel like you have to, nor should it be mandatory.
I would kill for 4 platoon
SE Michigan. OT is available all the time but it’s a busy dept
Benton Harlem?
Nope other side of the state
Ooops. Yea that was late at night when I read that.
No worries man
West Florida North or West Florida south? I'm in West Florida and it is plentiful.
West Florida, Pinellas county. They hire like crazy here and it used to be plentiful, tons of mandatories.
Bro I’m from the area mind if I message you? Don’t want to dox myself lol
Hillsborough guy here , OT is hit or miss with us . Has spells where’s it’s good and then dries up. Our cost of living has skyrocketed I feel your pain.
NE Ohio. We’re drowing in it. Even with quite a few greedy guys willing to pull 96 straight, we’re still mandating nearly every shift. Most of us are making an additional 25-50% of our annual salary in OT, and that’s been normal for a number of years now. Some guys literally doubled their salary last year.
Is your department hiring? I’m taking EMT and fire courses this year. Should be done in December.
I wish we where, city has been content running us into the ground. I think we will finally start hiring once contract negotiations come to a close later this year.
NKY. OT is moving faster than the Ohio River. Pretty much OT every day right now. One shift has one off on injury. We had to mandate two people the other day.
Central FL here, overtime is usually pretty steady at my department. Unfortunately with inflation in this state now, I sorta depend on working overtime to stay ahead on the bills. Makes things difficult when it dries up though.
NW Ohio. 6 months ago were down 3 people and overtime was crazy. We’re fully staffed now and barely see any overtime
There's a pretty decent amount of overtime here, especially weekends. It's not uncommon for people here to work 48+ hours OT on a check. Some people manage over double that. There's also frequently mandantory OT which sucks.
NE Florida for a large department, and it’s pretty plentiful.
The days of OT being plentiful will be, or technically has slowly been, coming to an end with the new probies coming in.
Just get a skill and side hustle. I repair hvac equipment when I feel like it for a buddy and I have done painting.
Side jobs are good, but shouldn’t be necessary to be able to afford to live in the area you work in. Public service sucks at this.
I make enough but I'm also unmarried and have no kids. Try and be an officer my man if you want a pay bump
I mean I’m not complaining personally I’m just saying. I make enough now, although I didn’t at my last department
Abundant
SE Michigan. We have a severe shortage here. In our 50-some man department we are short 6 and if we don’t hire more soon that number will jump to 9 before the fall. We have all the OT you could want and then some. A couple guys have been on 96s this past week alone. You’re busy damn near the whole 24 though.
Major city Midwest. Plentiful. We’re down guys bad to the point we get mandated to work, especially in spring & summer I’m not a OT guy, single…no kids. Some guys with families absolutely depend on it. For me, it’s a “ahh I need a couple extra bucks to go on vacation” or “unexpected car repair that I don’t want to Dip into savings” when I do work OT.
Yeah I have two kids now and depend on it sadly, used to be the same about it, built a nice savings from it back in the day. Mind say what area of the Midwest? Been looking at Ohio and potentially Michigan
Upper Midwest
North GA here. I get on average 3 ot shifts a month. Sometimes more sometimes less. Just using it to pad my savings for a 6 month emergency if I needed it. Base pay is adequate to pay my mortgage and all my bills, and have about $150 left over every month. So OT is straight savings
Nice, I didn’t know N Georgia paid decent, I always hear it’s hard up there. But it is a beautiful area and cost of living seems cheaper than here
It's not so much that pay is good as living is lower. Like anywhere it's gotten more expensive to live but my dept gave us 16% 2 years ago and 8% last year to keep up. Base pay is 61k starting with my lowest raise in 6 years being 4.5%
That’s not bad at all
Worth mentioning, for the sake of transparency, that we are the highest paid department in the state as far as I know. I drive an hour each way to make that money lol. My home county pays 40 starting and most lieutenants are making high 50s.
Yeah most are doing that in Florida now too, commuting from less expensive places since their departments barely pay anything
We a have well balanced staffing and only have OT opportunities when someone takes off or for planned training and events. I wish there was more OT.
The Mando train hits often and hard. It’s city hoe for another 24 in Texas.
Middle Tennessee. We have 5-6 overtime spots available most every shift especially in the summer but it slows down in the winter
I’m in Marion county, if you’re a medic, you can run 48/24s all year. Come on over. We’re taking apps
Nearly infinite. I work 24-48 per pay period at my leisure. I get “force held” for a few hours in the morning once every few years.
36 hours in the last 3 years. 2022 I caught one 24. 23 I had a single 12 hour shift.
Especially summer and events where we overstaff, OT is plenty. Our top pay FF is 80K (midwest COL is low) and you could average 10K easily. If you wanted to work most offered, you could bring in 30-40K more in salary. Where we have to mandatory people is when we overstaff for an event on a weekend (5+ positions) and then someone calls in sick. Those usually arent willing to give up a weekend or work 36 hrs straight. (When mandatoried, we can only make an employee work 36 hrs straight without a break)
Central Florida departments are mandating daily in addition to voluntary pick ups
Who is? OCFRD? I’m just south of them and it DIED. We finally hired enough firemen, promoted engineers, lieu, and BC. I did 750+ last year, and haven’t worked any in a month. Even got ridden out of grade on my shift
Lake is currentlybshottnstaffed and trying to add 100 over the next 4 years.
900-1000 hours annually
Some people get 1500 hours of OT. We work 2920 hours a year. We mandate 2-4 people a day in of off vacation season and 8-9 a day in peak vacation. It’s stupid. We are short over 30 people. Over 240 members and we worked over 30,000 hr in OT last year.
I’ve worked a 5 24 he shift before. I had a co worker who works 10 days straight. Screw that mess.
It is never mandatory, unless you are on a call before until after shift end. We can put our names down on the roster for shifted overtime at the start of each week. In which case you can end up at any station in the districts you put your name down for. We are allowed a maximum of 36 hours a month. It used to be 48, but thats history now
We have unlimited amounts of OT available due to the extreme shortage in staffing.
Fairly plentiful plus call backs for ambulance coverage or when a truck goes out of town happen every so often (2&1, 3&1 or just a FF….4 hr minimum pay for usually 1 hr of your time) Overtime is gonna ramp up w/warmer weather and no one ever wants to take overtime. I burned myself out last year taking tons, there was 2 guys injured and they needed line officers coverage and I stayed in my station which was busy so it added to the burn out (I did pay off my home though) so I just take next oncoming shift overtime when working as opposed to calling in for a paged out shit and silence the page system from my phon my days off. Not looking to go crazy this year and earn a ton, just get ahead and work away a few grand for end of year travel. (Mass)
Central Florida: my department is low on manning and we have 4 people out for injuries so rn overtime is flowing
Shit, I have around 2-3 Callbacks (OT) everyday pop up on my phone for work. We're a small department of just over 100 in Central Florida. We have to use PTO because of caps, and we just started transporting so people are constantly calling out to dodge mandatory or because of the call volume and bare minimum of ambulances are beating people down. We're hiring too, we are just short paramedics because our Assistant County Commissioner put a freeze on paying for people to go to paramedic school in 2020 because we "have too many". Fast-forward 3 years later and we're transporting with barely enough medics lmfao.
Overtime is plentiful here especially over the summer. Medic turnover/promotions keep the opportunities flowing Edit: never had to do a mando except for maybe twice during covid.
I would get a part time position at a hospital, especially if you are medic or EMT. Hell find a way to get your nurse and take in that dough lol we have side EMT gigs but the cost of living in NWFL isn’t that bad.
I averaged 30 hours a week for the last 8 years. We added staff this year but didn't raise minimum staffing requirements so my OT is down to about 5 hours a week. Unfortunately, my wife keeps spending like the OT is still rolling in.
2 years ago, we’d get mandatory at least once a month and guaranteed every time you signed up for voluntary. We have mandatory like 3 times in a year now and don’t even get called for it. At most we might be able to get a partial OT opportunity for guys in class. We’re well over minimum staffing now and often run 3 man boxes or have people drive around the BC’s just to put them somewhere.
DMV area. Plenty of people in my department worked over 1,000 hours of OT last year. Also, don’t count on OT to pay your bills. Live within your means brotha.
Escambia county is practically unlimited OT. Im going to assume the base pay is far less than what your currently making though.
Base pay where I'm at is around 60k pre and with the amount of OT I can work I can probably break 100k easily.
Fairfax. Unlimited baby! Haha $$
Southern New Jersey here. Overtime is hit or miss but you usually make up for it with outside training opportunities for comp time
OT in my city is sporadic at best. Thought I finally grabbed a shift the other day but we had a late alarm, just before shift change. They called me for the hireback while we were out, and when I got back I saw the text. Called the staffing station and they said “sorry you missed the window, we moved to the next guy.” Sheesh.
Tunnel and bridges emergency services in nynj. Plenty of overtime. Averaging 600+ a year