RocketMedic
Californian, Lost in Texas
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Our union is blocking a pay raise and shift to a rotating schedule with less hours and more money because "we earned our weekends off"....yeah. Union no bueno when their policies suck.
Associations and Unions not doing enough for EMS?
- Thread starter ExpatMedic0
- Start date
Yeah, I'm not sold that firefighters and cops make more then EMT's anyways. Cops maybe but that is because of supply and demand. Firefighters by and large make less than EMS workers (specifically medics) on average (I would bet).
Also if anyone has studied the huge inefficiencies created by things that hinder free market movement (such as unions) I would hope you would think a lot more about giving support to any organization that buys power with money and does not have the best interests of everyone in mind...
going back to something that came up in another thread. What other one year certificate program can you attend and have almost guaranteed employment somewhere and earn 50k plus a year every year (after you have been in it 5 years) easy.....all while having a job that allows you to surf the web, use your cell phone, watch tv, and even sleep while getting paid...
I would find it very hard to justify paying EMS workers more (as a whole) at all....
Also if anyone has studied the huge inefficiencies created by things that hinder free market movement (such as unions) I would hope you would think a lot more about giving support to any organization that buys power with money and does not have the best interests of everyone in mind...
going back to something that came up in another thread. What other one year certificate program can you attend and have almost guaranteed employment somewhere and earn 50k plus a year every year (after you have been in it 5 years) easy.....all while having a job that allows you to surf the web, use your cell phone, watch tv, and even sleep while getting paid...
I would find it very hard to justify paying EMS workers more (as a whole) at all....
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I know that in the Carolinas, medics can make more than firefighters. That changes when you get out of the Southeast, though.
When comparing EMS to police, realize that police typically work less hours than EMS does. Many FD and EMS schedules are 48 or 56 hour workweeks. You have to adjust the hourly to reflect a 40 hour workweek.
For example, Charleston County EMS pays their paramedic crew chiefs starting at $46k/yr, give or take. There are 12 hour shift/48 hours a week units, but there are quite a few 24 hour/56 hour week tours as well. That's $13.85/hr for the first 40 hours, and then $20.77/hr for the last 16 hours of mandatory OT. So, in reality, the quoted $46k/yr salary is correct for pension purposes only, but it is not your true yearly base compensation. You're effectively doing 16 hours of OT every single week that you're employed there. Your true base is $28,808/yr. That doesn't sound that generous to me. A cop making $15/hr, or $31,200/yr, is technically paid more than the 56 hour/week medic making a base of $46,000/yr.
Did the membership vote on this issue?