Experience Pay

Bullets

Forum Knucklehead
1,600
222
63
Anyone provide experience based pay incentives? I am looking to start this with my agency and was wondering if anyone else had a scale they used. I was think of at least three rates, volunteer, IFT and 911.
 

DrParasite

The fire extinguisher is not just for show
6,196
2,052
113
my first NC EMS agency did this. the second one provided experience pay for FT people, but not part time people. none of my NJ ones did.

things to consider: full time experience vs part time experience, clinical experience (actually being on the ambulance) vs support experience (first responding on the engine, administrative support such a supervisor who spend most of the time at a desk, communications, or in a training position), some volunteer agencies are busier than slow 911 agencies, and what about people that work IFT, 911 and as a volunteer. or someone like monoc BLS, which is primarily IFT, with the occasional 911, compared to nights at Quality, which I am told is primarily 911 with the occasional IFT. Or if a volunteer runs 8 calls in 12 hours (in a system that runs 5,000 calls a year between two trucks), compared to a full time EMS who runs 2 calls in 12 hours.

When I started down here, my employer looked at my application, which listed two full time EMS employers lasting about 10 years, one where i was primarily a clinical provider and the second where I was support (at least in their opinion). It didn't include a slew of other part time clinical jobs. Suffice it to say, when she finished calculating my pay rate based on my entire EMS work history, she had a major headache, especially with all the overlap. Even an extra $0.25 an hour per year of FT experience helps.

Most agencies do pay more for experience, as an incentive to hire experienced and competent people. EMS experience, bonuses for rescue qualifications, instructor certifications, etc can all help you recruit and retain qualified personnel.
 

NPO

Forum Deputy Chief
1,831
897
113
My agency gives 2% per year up to 5 years of experience.

Experience must be relevant, and not be older than 6 months.

2% doesn't sound like much, but it adds up.
 

RocketMedic

Californian, Lost in Texas
4,997
1,461
113
I don't think Creek does 'experience pay' per se, but experienced employees generally start immediately at the P-2 paramedic level of pay.
 

DrParasite

The fire extinguisher is not just for show
6,196
2,052
113
We will give year for year experience. If you have 10 years, you will start at that level.
does the agency size or call volume matter? I would imagine there is a difference in experience levels between working for an agency that does 300 calls a year, and 30,000 calls a year, especially in the number of patient contacts the person actually has. if I was a volunteer EMT or medic for 10 years, do I start at a 10 year medic pay rate? what if I was a firefighter who only worked on an engine, but is still a certified medic? or is it full time experience, or does part time count too? what about a 3 year emt or medic who hasn't been able to get a job as a provider, do they still get to start at 3 year level?
 

hometownmedic5

Forum Asst. Chief
806
612
93
Ok, first off, let's clarify a point. If you're paid, you aren't a volunteer.

In terms of your other two categories, you could play it that way, but I really don't think you're going to like the results. IFT makes money, a lot of money if done right. If you have any doubts, go look in my bosses driveways. That's pluralized for two reasons, two owners and both own more than one house. 911 can make money, but not nearly as much and sometimes not at all.

So, if I own a company and my employees come to me and demand incentive pay, I'm giving it to the IFT guys. You can get anybody on a front piece. You can't snap your fingers and get someone on a transfer truck to take their jobs seriously and provide excellent customer service so as to retain customers.

My company provides both a merit raise and a step raise every year. They don't base it on whether you do 911 or IFT.
 

Tigger

Dodges Pucks
Community Leader
7,843
2,794
113
We do 3% yearly step raises. When you reach an arbitrary max pay, you get an additional bonus every year that equates to 3% of your pay but the rate never increases. Merit raises can be included in that, though not more than additional 2%. Some people get 2% because they have some sort of admin role (supply, grants, vehicles), other folks might just get an extra 2% some year because they've been around for a while and need a pay bump but most of the time that is a separate conversation and an arbitrary rate change is made. Not one of our 12 full time paramedics have the same base wage. We could probably do better in terms of how this is formally structured.

If you are hired from the local, busy AMR operation or comparable experience, you will make what someone with similar agency experience has. We have never hired anyone with low volume experience, so I don't know how that would go.
 

cruiseforever

Forum Asst. Chief
559
169
43
does the agency size or call volume matter? I would imagine there is a difference in experience levels between working for an agency that does 300 calls a year, and 30,000 calls a year, especially in the number of patient contacts the person actually has. if I was a volunteer EMT or medic for 10 years, do I start at a 10 year medic pay rate? what if I was a firefighter who only worked on an engine, but is still a certified medic? or is it full time experience, or does part time count too? what about a 3 year emt or medic who hasn't been able to get a job as a provider, do they still get to start at 3 year level?[.

As sad as it is to say, a lot of depends on how well you can sell yourself to the manager. A three year person that has not work as a medic or EMT would start at the bottom. Most of the people that we hire will start at their years of experience level if they have worked .5 or better for that period of time
 

DrParasite

The fire extinguisher is not just for show
6,196
2,052
113
As sad as it is to say, a lot of depends on how well you can sell yourself to the manager.
respectfully disagree.

if a hiring manager is arbitrarily setting your payrate, than I agree that the rate you are offered will depend on how well you sell yourself to the hiring manager.

If you are using an objective system (which is why I believe @Bullets was looking for), where you give a certain amount for experience (($.025/year for 911 work, $0.10 for IFT work, $0.05 for volunteer work) on top of their base starting salary, as either an incentive to hire experienced people. After all, there are plenty of agencies that don't want to hire newbies, but are only able to (or willing to, depending on who you ask) pay newbie wages.
 
Top