On this FDNY Memorial Day, we honor the FDNY members lost in the past year, with more 50% of the names memorialized today coming from EMS. It also serves as a reminder of the reality that EMS workers put their health and safety on the line every day yet are paid 50% less.
In calendar year 2025, EMS members managed 1,613,282 medical emergencies. That means approximately 19% of our city’s 8.5 million residents require their medical skills and lifesaving services each year.
Our city’s fire protection inspectors are critical for keeping fire deaths at record lows conducting regular safety inspections, constantly putting themselves at risk to protect New Yorkers and prevent fires.
Today’s FDNY EMS workforce is mandated to respond to half a million more medical emergencies as they did 20 years ago. Yet, they are doing so with no increase in ambulance crews on the street, because the city’s economic investment in EMS is consistently flat.
The starting salary for FDNY EMTs is $43,932, just under $19/hour. After taxes and fees, that comes out to just more than $12/hour.
Even after five years of experience, saving lives and interacting daily with highly compensated emergency room doctors and nurses, the wage ceiling is $59,534, just a fraction of what a doctor or a critical care nurse earns.
Juxtapose this to firefighting peers in the FDNY, whose wage is $109,352 after 5½ years.
With poverty wages, it’s no wonder the data shows average response times to life-threatening medical emergencies climbing from 11:21 in 2025 to 13:09 in 2026.
If your loved one is having a stroke or cardiac arrest, it’s unacceptable. That response time clock only calculates arrival time to the curb, not to the apartment door.
It costs taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars to train and certify each EMS professional. Yet poverty wages have led to 50% of those workers leaving by year three.
The affordability crisis is contributing to crippling turnover. EMS is offered raises like other city unions, but it does not alleviate the issues.
Simple math shows that EMTs’ monthly wages do not even approach the median asking rent of $3,707 for an apartment here. Left with few housing options, many must commute from hours away, making the job even more onerous and hazardous to mental well-being.
Emergency medical workers confront death, serious injury, violence, grief and human suffering. They are asked to make critical decisions in chaotic circumstances, sometimes repeatedly throughout one day. The emotional impact of those experiences does not dissipate once the shift ends.
As call volumes increase, understaffed EMTs are pushed beyond their limits shouldering a herculean workload. Recruitment cannot keep pace with departures, especially with app-based delivery workers making an average of $27.32/hour and hotel workers at $42.37/hour, both radically higher wages than EMS.
Between this summer’s Knicks championship run, FIFA World Cup and 250th commemoration of the birth of our nation, it was common for overall call backlogs to reach 100 to 150 at a time, due to crew and manpower shortages.
These workers were the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic and will be essential in the next medical outbreak. It’s beyond time for city or even state leaders to act and fix this public health crisis.
EMS members and fire inspectors deserve better and should be treated with the same value as the city’s other first responders.
These workers are not arguing that they deserve greater compensation than firefighters but are advocating for more equitable pay that better reflects the unique nature of their work, securing the safety and health of their fellow New Yorkers.
Greco is the president of FDNY EMS Local 2507 representing the fire department’s EMTs, paramedics and fire protection inspectors.