Or, you can move to an area where paramedics are treated like professionals, working for a true third service. A department where the focus is on medicine, education and patient care... Not how much 5" hose is going to fit on the new engine purchased with money made by ALS transports.
Yes, those third services exist. Im proud to say I work in a place where there is excellent pay, a robust pension plan, true advancement through a fair and equatable promotional ladder and no need to put wet stuff on the hot stuff.
County based third service paramedics. The way EMS should be delivered... by single role medics, not by hose jockeys who became paramedics just to land a fire job.
I tried Third Service EMS after working hosptal based 911, and before my current fire based career. I found it limting, with cronyism affecting the few available promotional opportunities, with little room to advance outside of field EMS (working on the bus). Light duty and office work positions are very limited. Some EMS departments do several types of rope rescue and heavy rescue, but this is rare. Due to attrition, we had mandatory OT forced on us continually.
Another, arguably more important thing is the pay and retirement benefits. I've heard that there are a few EMS only departments that pay well, but this is atypical. Most of the municipal third services, namely in the Carolinas, only start at around $30-$33k/yr, and only top out around $50-$55k. That's practically welfare wages when you realize that you're working a 56 hour workweek to earn that pay. For example, for a yearly salary of $33,280, your hourly rate is only $10/hr. You can have that. I shouldn't have to work 140% of a normal workweek just to make the equivalent of a $16/hr 40 hour job. To boot, your OT rate is only $15/hr instead of $24/hr like it should be. What's more, the employer saves on benefits, insurance, training, equipment, etc. for two people on every five hired (56 hours x 5 = 40 hours x 7). So, it's an insult to start me for anything less than $50k/yr with a 25 and out pension @ anything less than a 2.8% multiplier as a single role municipal 911 medic, IMO. If you're private or hospital based, I'm going to need a significantly higher base salary so that I can contrivbute the maximum into a 401k/403b since a pension is not offered.
From what I can gather from these boards, there's maybe like five employers in the country that can offer this.
After working for a starting salary of $38k in South Carolina, I quickly found that a lower cost of living does not justify that low of a starting wage. Housing is the only thing that is cheaper. Everything else costs the same, or is more expensive than can be found in an expensive, urban environment (I'm from NY). A Third Service career in EMS is not sustainable for the long term, IMO, due to the poor wages coupled with long work hours, lack of career advancement opportunites, lack of positions outside of EMS transport, and lack of alternative placement opportunities for the injured or pregnant.
For many, a single role EMS job excluding King County WA, a few places in TX, and Lee County FL/Wake County NC (if you're willing to tolerate low to mediocre pay) are only stepping stones for many who use them as a resume builder while they look for something better. Really, how many EMS "lifers" do you know, and what is the ratio of these lifers to the overall numbers of employees that have passed through the organization throughout the years? Now compare that to a fire department.
I'm not saying that a third service is any better or worse than a fire based service concerning EMS delivery, and the same goes for hospital based (my cousin is the Director of one, former FDNY EMS Officer) and privates. I could show shining examples as well as complete abominations from each category. To say that one type of service is better or worse than another is unfair. For example, the fire service is frequently accused of retarding educational advancements (degrees as a minimum standard) in EMS. This may be true to an extent. However, when you look at EMS as a whole, hardly any privates, third services, or hospitals require an EMS degree, nor do they give hiring preference to degree holders. In many cases, experience and experience only is what counts. The blame for poor education can be shared throughout the various types of EMS employers. What is true is where pay, benefits, career advancement and lateral movement is concerned, the fire service has been shown to outshine the other types of EMS departments in the U.S.
If anyone has an example of a quality Third Service EMS department that also pays well (ballpark of $50k/yr for a 56 hour week) coupled with a pension with a multiplier that gives north of a 70% benefit, please share. It saddens me that there are so few options available. If there were, I probably would have never explored fire based EMS.
