Seven Surprising Salaries by CareerBuilder.com

[nashima]

Paramedics

What they do: Paramedics are dispatched by a 911 operator to the scene of emergency when a person is involved with an accident or illness. When necessary, paramedics treat emergency patients and transport them to the hospital.

The surprise: Despite the fact that paramedics offer immediate, critical medical attention and frequently save lives, the BLS reports that their median annual salary is merely $26,080.

As a future paramedic (EMT-B student atm), I find this reality very depressing! :sad:

The full article may be found at:
http://msn.careerbuilder.com/custom...506e342f624504988605f61e196f57-223870422-W0-2

 

[MMiz]

First, welcome to EMTLife!

I agree! I have a four year college degree, in fact two of them, and only make a couple of thousand more.

If you're in this job for the money, then I've reevaluate your priorities.

EMS is a great job, but you can expect to work significant overtime if you want to make any money. I had one partner that worked 80+ hours in a week just to make ends meet. When you figure that there are only about 160 hours in a week, and we didn't have stations to sleep in, this guy was spending almost every hour of the day working EMS.

That said, I still think EMS is one of the most exciting and challenging jobs out there.

 

[Ridryder911]

I agree, as well. Now (definitely not disagreeing with low pay!) now where is one to get the money to pay higher salaries ?

Yes, I definitely think it is a tragedy for medics to be paid such low salaries, and hopefully we can increase it. If you are looking for high pay salary, don't enter the medical profession at all! Even physicians work for small amount compared to those with the same level of education and per hour...

R/r 911