When I first worked as an EMT in 2002, it was for $9.50 at Hunter Ambulance (Inwood). Metrocare was paying $10/hr, and Citywide was around $9/hr. It saddens me to see that the privates still pay the same starting salary. $400 gross/week in 2002 is much less than $400 gross in 2012, considering inflation.
You'll be left with around $300 after taxes or so, since you're probably paying city taxes in addition to state and federal. That's approx. $1,200/month to live on, with two extra paychecks a year, due to there being 26 pay periods in 12 months.
We look at a full time schedule as an necessary inconvenience to access time and a half OT. Many of us also work part time for other employers. If you don't mind working upwards of 60 hours a week, you can survive with a combination of OT and per diem work.
Welcome to EMS. this is how we get trapped. We learn to count on OT and a second job to survive. Our expenses eventually match this income, so we have no choice but to continue like this.
If you can schedule some doubles, 12's, or even 10 hour shifts if available, you'll have more free time to work on other days. If you can land an all night schedule, you'll have free time for school.
Good luck, and get yourself a degree of some sort so that you have a way out, even though it may seem like you don't need a way out right now. At the least, get your medic (NY Methodist, my almer mater, has evening classes 1800-2200), get your NR-P, so that you can easily move out of state for a better standard of living and actually own these things called houses and retirement accounts.
I left NY for this reason. It was fun, but nearly all of my income went to paying bills, and it was looking to remain that way until I retire at 72 straight into a nursing home.
