First responders wages: Career firefighters earn more than ambos, police
Victorian career firefighters are at the top of the ladder when it comes to salaries, topped up by generous allowances and overtime. See how average employee benefits for Victoria’s first responders compare.
CAREER firefighters cost Victorians at least $163,785 each last year, with the wages bill likely to have blown out even further since then.
The Andrews Government is yet to release this year’s MFB and CFA annual reports, but analysis of those from last year show the average wage of the MFB’s 2000 operational firefighters and 388 support staff had reached $163,785.
The MFB was merged with the CFA’s career firefighters and 38 former integrated stations to form Fire Rescue Victoria on July 1, bringing all of them under a new enterprise agreement that delivers even more generous allowances and overtime.
Last year the CFA’s annual report showed it spent an average of $134,435 per employee, but that included 1401 support staff, along with its 1371 firefighters, commanders, instructors and other operational staff.
The financials do not separate employee costs into support and operational streams, however CFA sources have previously told The Weekly Times that in 2018, 260 of its UFU firefighters earned an average $225,000 each, once overtime penalties and allowances were added to their salaries.
The wages bill for career firefighters compares to $151,748 that Ambulance Victoria pays in wages and benefits to its average employee.
The lowest ranked wage earners among Victoria’s emergency responders last year were police employees, who averaged benefits of $127,596 each.
While emergency services volunteers work for nothing, a rough estimate of the cost of servicing them can be estimated from last year’s financials.
Stripping out employee benefits and allocating all other expenses to volunteers, brings the average cost of servicing a CFA volunteer to $4957 last year and $6649 for those in the SES.
While the latest 2019-20 annual reports for the MFB and CFA are yet to be released, a hint of what is to come emerged from last week’s release of the Department of Justice and Community Safety’s latest annual report.
The Weekly Times last week reported the DoJCS’s grants to the CFA and MFB, in the 12 months leading up to the merger on July 1, showed their combined allocations grew from $1.03 billion to $1.25b in just 12 months.
Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville spokeswoman said “firefighters put their lives on the line to keep Victorians safe (so) it’s important their pay and conditions are commensurate with the vital service they provide”.
“Both fire and rescue agencies are using their combined resources to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our communities – and we’ll continue to back them in with the funding and resources they need.”
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