By Joe Szydlowski
The Redding Record Searchlight
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California state firefighters are campaigning in Sacramento and beyond for higher pay, saying municipal departments are luring their colleagues away with better wages and hours.
“We don’t want to be the highest paid department, just compensated fairly to what the average is,” said Steve Buell, who serves as the alternate chapter director for the Local 2881 in Nevada, Yuba and Placer counties and as a fire captain with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
His union, which represents Cal Fire firefighters across the state, rallied Monday at the Capitol with family members for higher pay.
That agency, he said, has had trouble with recruitment because of the base wages, which he said amount to a little more than half of the average at municipal fire departments. However, when benefits, overtime and other contributions are added in, entry-level, full-time Cal Fire firefighters receive $11,051 while battalion chiefs receive $15,818 monthly.
Those figures add up to about two-thirds of their municipal counterparts, according to the 2014 California Firefighter Total Compensation Survey by the California Department of Human Resources, which negotiates the union contract that affects 6,500 employees.
Representatives with that agency didn’t return two calls for comment, including one to a cell phone.
In its report, Cal HR randomly selected 20 fire departments to compare with Cal Fire’s compensations.
That report found that while Cal Fire pays less of a base salary, its full-time firefighters receive more overtime, offsetting the gap somewhat. It also said they receive substantially more money for health benefits but less for retirement than municipal firefighters.
But total compensation for Cal Fire employees is similar to some Redding firefighters, according to data provided by the city. While entry-level firefighters make about $40,000 more with Cal Fire than Redding, Redding’s captains and engineers earn more than their Cal Fire counterparts.
The battalion chiefs’ salaries are comparable.
But, Buell said, those total compensation numbers don’t include one key element, which the report brought up: Cal Fire firefighters work 72 hours a week to staff their station for that pay — the surveyed municipalities, along with the city of Redding, require only 56 hours per week.
Federal law establishes a full-time shift as 53 hours per week because firefighters typically work 24-hour shifts. That means Cal Fire employees work more hours than their municipal counterparts but still take home less cash, Buell said.
In addition, a new law raises the minimum wage for Californians, including seasonal firefighters, he said. That means an upward pressure on year-round, full-time employees, Buell said.
Their contract has gone through several negotiations, but 2006 was the last time they received a raise, he said.
“We’ve settled for so long, and with the minimum wage pushing up, we have to fix the wage problem,” he said.
That’s causing morale problems and a brain drain, he said.
“If I’m a firefighter making $4,000 and a captain makes $4,500 and has way more responsibility, I’m going to stay a firefighter. There’s no incentive to promote,” he said, noting half of those who applied to become Cal Fire fire captains actually took the test.
Many instead move to municipal departments, where they get better pay for the same work, he said.
“You could be working on a fire assignment next to a (Los Angeles) fire engine, they’re making $50 an hour and the Cal Fire (employee) is making $24 or $26 an hour, all on overtime,” he said, noting those numbers were hypothetical. “Double the money for the same amount of risk.”
Copyright 2016 the Redding Record Searchlight