Salary Keeping Pace with Inflation?

MMiz

MMiz

I put the M in EMTLife
Community Leader
Messages
5,582
Reaction score
442
Points
83
Did you receive a big pay bump this year to keep pace with inflation?

I received a few retention bonuses (about 8% of my salary), but not much in the way of long-term salary increases.
 
Our county commissioners are looking at doing a 5% cola plus 1 dollar pay raise this year. On top of the small pay bump my agency put into our budget. It will come out to about 8-9% increase.
 
a big pay bump? ha.

starting salaries are increasing all across the board, however significant raises for existing employees are much less common.

In the corporate world, my annual raises are between 2% and 6%; when I changed jobs last November, I got a 8.5% bump in salary and a sign-on bonus. When I changed jobs almost two years ago, I got a 35% raise.

Salary compression is common when significant increases are made to recruit new hires but existing employees don't get the same increases in their salaries
www.salary.com

A Beginner's Guide to Pay Compression

What is pay compression? Also known as salary compression or wage compression, learn how it can affect pay equity within your company.
www.salary.com www.salary.com
www.compa.as

Salary Compression: What it is and What You Can Do About it

Salary compression can lead to unfair compensation decisions that demotivate and disengage your team members. Here's how to identify and address it.
www.compa.as www.compa.as
www.payscale.com

What is Pay Compression and How Do You Address It?

Pay compression is when employees who have been in a job for a long time makes less than new hires in the same position... Here's how to address it:
www.payscale.com www.payscale.com
 
We got 3% per year for 3 years on our latest contract, settled after the huge inflation bump so they knew it was below.

That said, we were a fair bit above a livable wage at the time, so we're still doing fine. We were and still are at the top of the county when looking at comparisons, so that hurt is too..
 
Nope. Raised the Paramedic minimum 22%, raised everyone else 5%. New cleared Paramedic (6mo to 8mo exp) will now make 2 dollars less than me, with 18 years experience as a Paramedic.
 
Most EMS services across the US doesn't pay equal to living expenses on a normal year; so why would you think they would increase pay to match the Cost of Living (Inflation) now?

Some areas would have to give 50% plus pay raises to make that happen.
 
johnrsemt said:
Most EMS services across the US doesn't pay equal to living expenses on a normal year; so why would you think they would increase pay to match the Cost of Living (Inflation) now?

Some areas would have to give 50% plus pay raises to make that happen.
Click to expand...

I've never seen a provider shortage of this magnitude during my lifetime.

Was hoping that it resulted in significantly higher wages.
 
We will see how negotiations go. Need desperately to add staff, also need to keep who we have.

AMR is now paying me 36/hour base pay which is more than double what I started as a paramedic at in 2016.
 
We are getting a 3% performance based raise and then at the end of each quarter the company is going to give us the difference between our 3% and the current inflation level.
 
Our previous 4 year contract expired last June, and all wages and everything we're frozen in place.
Which was good, we didn't lose anything... but my class was due to get our 4 year pay step increase last August, riiigghhtt after everything got frozen, so we never got that, which kinda sucked, but a miner inconvenience I guess.

That would have been our first pay step increase. They finally negotiated a new 4 year contract which took effect July 1st (we expect to see the effects on the end of month paycheck). Retroactive to last year, 0% raise for that time (in effect recognizing the frozen pay)

But after 5 years of no pay step increases, we'll get our Step, but on top of that, everyone is getting an Across the Board 3% pay raise this year, then in 2023 we'll get a 4% raise and another 4% raise in 2024 for the last year of this Contract.

So hopefully that'll cut a little of the Inflation sting...
 
Eh yes and no. Both jobs have given good raises the last 12 months, but neither were particularly great to start. What really boosts income and quality of life this past year is all the bonus pay to get people to pick up, I'm making a killing that way.
 
Iambatman said:
Nope. Raised the Paramedic minimum 22%, raised everyone else 5%. New cleared Paramedic (6mo to 8mo exp) will now make 2 dollars less than me, with 18 years experience as a Paramedic.
Click to expand...
I feel that, but at least they raised the pay. Where’s this at?
 
Tigger said:
We will see how negotiations go. Need desperately to add staff, also need to keep who we have.

AMR is now paying me 36/hour base pay which is more than double what I started as a paramedic at in 2016.
Click to expand...
$36 an hour on a 42-hour work week? That ain’t terrible at all brother.
 
RocketMedic said:
$36 an hour on a 42-hour work week? That ain’t terrible at all brother.
Click to expand...
New medics are getting close to 30. Currently on a four 12s schedule to deal with their staffing crisis which is terrible though. Supposed to back to 42 hours in January.
 
A friend and coworker at PT job is moving to Colorado Springs to work at AMR in Denver (if she can jump through all their hoops) to make $17.30 a hour. Plus good OT supposedly. She is volunteering to work Long Distance transports, since the shortest transports she does now is 110 miles one way to a Level III, and up to 140 to a Level I, and maybe another 80 miles on top of that depending where the run starts. I suggested she do that to see if there was extra money in it.
Since she is working paid on call, it is a big pay bump, but she is living where a 1 bed room apartment is $600 a month, and she is moving into a 1 bedroom, in the basement of a coworkers house for the same amount so it will be a shock for her (driving75 miles each way to work, where now she drives 2 blocks).
 
johnrsemt said:
A friend and coworker at PT job is moving to Colorado Springs to work at AMR in Denver (if she can jump through all their hoops) to make $17.30 a hour. Plus good OT supposedly. She is volunteering to work Long Distance transports, since the shortest transports she does now is 110 miles one way to a Level III, and up to 140 to a Level I, and maybe another 80 miles on top of that depending where the run starts. I suggested she do that to see if there was extra money in it.
Since she is working paid on call, it is a big pay bump, but she is living where a 1 bed room apartment is $600 a month, and she is moving into a 1 bedroom, in the basement of a coworkers house for the same amount so it will be a shock for her (driving75 miles each way to work, where now she drives 2 blocks.
Click to expand...
She would have a much better job at AMR Colorado Springs…

There is constant EMT hiring occurring here (medics too). Starting pay is 17/hour for no experience and up to 20.57/hour with prior experience.

The system is way better, Denver AMR is mostly IFT with Denver Health leftover 911 overflow.

Colorado Springs will put EMTs into the 911 system pretty quick especially if you any experience. We have BLS ambulances responding to alpha (priority 3) 911s solo and then ALS are these days almost all medic/EMT cars. New people might do some time on IFT BLS or wheelchair/psych vans but these days that seems to not be more than a few months.

EMTs use their full Colorado scope in the system too—you’ll start lots of IVs. Not sure what Utah is like but EMTs are also expected to do IOs, iGels, joint reductions, nebs, zofran, and some others. Great system for EMT experience.

Plenty of transfers to Denver that are not paid extra. Actual LDTs to western Colorado or the plains get built as separate OT shifts.
 
Last edited:
This year, my raise was less than a dime.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top