Idk man...i dont work for fdny ems but i did the math and ONE shift a week of OT at 59000 a year should put you in the 70's...two shifts which is really in 16 hours extra a week should have tou close to six figures.
Add shift differntial and meal money, is the job as bad as everyone really makes it out to be?!?
For starters, meal money is a joke. Because of the way they pay us, we only get paid for 7.5 hours a day (please don't ask how it works but it has always been that way) and then get less than $5 a day for that meal money as compensation for not getting a meal break. Personally I feel like one seems to mention that if we got that extra 30 minutes of straight pay each day, that would be far more than the pitiful meal money we get. But that would throw off the way we are paid and which would then affect our work schedule.
On top off all the regular taxes that everyone pays (state and federal income, SS, etc), you pay a city tax as well so that's a nice little extra bonus I get for the honor of serving the public of NYC.
Also, OT is capped at 35% of your annual income. So you can work your tail off all you want but you will get capped in the fall. Now there are exceptions where they lift the cap (i.e. every December when all the OT hounds have been capped since September or October and cannot work so picks up the OT and therefore the cap is lifted to fill all the open shifts) or some sort of special occurrence (i.e. when Transcare went out of business and they added extra shifts but those shifts did not count towards your OT cap). I hope that makes sense.
Now to the crux of the matter: is the job as bad as everyone really makes it out to be? I'll be honest, right now it isn't great. I work in the Bronx, the fastest growing borough in the city population-wise. Until the recent additions of new tours and influx of new EMTs, I felt like Sisyphus going to work (as a medic). Clear the hospital and BANG another job. Hope you are a fast eater. Units that are deployed from other boroughs are very surprised with the call volume compared to where they normally work. Management will tell you to your face "It's not about numbers," then in the same breath quote you numbers that we need to improve upon. Everybody (officers included) is under pressure to do more faster. There are a litany of things I feel could be improved upon but only if were that easy...
Finally, do not kid yourself with that $59,000 number. Even if you add in longevity pay and meal money, I doubt its more than $65k a year (before OT). It is expensive as hell to live here and that top end salary is a complete joke compared to fire ($99k) and PD ($92k).
All that being said, I do enjoy working there. Good partners at my station, mostly good officers. If you don't try to scheme your way out of doing work, you will be fine. Co-workers have their opinions on our union but its better than anything in the privates (which in this area is either none or a complete joke). If you need assistance/supplies/PD, you'll get it. Not the case at my last private job in Westchester County (the unofficial motto there was "make it work with what you got"). You can build up leave very quickly and health insurance is pretty good and relatively inexpensive. And do not forget the golden goose of public service: the pension. Now I just have to get through the next 20+ years in one piece.
