EMS pay parity would cost city $1.2 billion over four years, report reveals

Medical response now dominates department despite underinvestment

Bringing FDNY EMS salaries up to parity with FDNY firefighters would cost the city more than $1.2 billion in added costs over a four-year period, an analysis by Comptroller Mark Levine found. A longtime goal of EMS union leaders, Levine’s office studied the cost of FDNY EMS parity with firefighters and EMS workers in the private sector as part of a lengthy report released Oct. 16: A System Under Strain: FDNY EMS Operations and Fiscal Pressures. 

According to the report, EMS response has come to dominate the department – over half of runs made by firefighters (53.4 percent) are solely for life-threatening medical emergencies, and EMS responses account for 75 percent of all the FDNY’s emergency response. But despite their growing role responding to a clear majority of 911 calls, EMS staff make up less than a third of FDNY personnel, according to the report.