Biden commits to $15 an hour pay for federal firefighters as fire season kicks off
(Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Agriculture; Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
Federal firefighters will receive a temporary pay increase to bring their salaries in line with what many consider to be a livable wage.
The increase will ensure no federal firefighter earns less than $15 an hour, while allowing front-line firefighters the opportunity to earn overtime.
The wage hike was announced during a round-table meeting between President Joseph Biden and governors from several western states, including California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Federal firefighters typically start around $14 an hour, but can earn as little as $11 an hour, a fact that Biden said only recently came to his attention.
“Last week, I learned that some of our federal firefighters are being paid less than $13 an hour,” Biden said in remarks made on Wednesday. “Come on, man, that’s unacceptable to me. And I immediately directed my team to take decisive action to fix it.”
The salary bump is expected to improve the paychecks of one out of every four firefighters who currently receives less than $15 an hour, according to salary data reviewed by Solano NewsNet.
In addition to the wage increase, Biden’s directive will afford front-line firefighters a 10 percent bonus as well as retention incentives. The president said he will work with federal lawmakers to “permanently get firefighters a better deal.”
Federal firefighters are contracted by the U.S. Forest Service, which is an extension of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They typically work in temporary positions during peak wildfire season, which starts in late spring and runs through the middle of autumn.
In recent years, several devastating and destructive wildfires have convinced climate experts that California and other regions have progressed toward a year-round fire season, a sentiment Biden shared on Wednesday.
“It’s no longer a seasonal job,” Biden said. “This is a year-round mission, so we’ve made sure seasonal firefighters can stay on the job, as long as they are needed this year, by allowing them to work beyond their term.”
Biden said he hoped lawmakers would work with him to ensure those positions remain permanent “so that when fires aren’t burning, we have a workforce of experienced hands enhancing our forest management, reducing the risk of future fire in the future fire season.”
In the meantime, the White House announced plans this week to allow state governors a channel to request highly-trained National Guard service members to respond to destructive wildfires where they occur. Such a request is hoped to provide additional manpower to areas that are the hardest hit by wildfires, including rural communities where volunteer firefighters are often lured away by state and federal agencies during fire season.
(File photo by Matthew Keys/Solano NewsNet)
The measures are a good first step, but Biden acknowledged that they come too little, too late for those who have suffered the effects of devastating wildfires in recent years.
“We’re late in the game here,” he conceded. “We’re remembering the horrific scenes from last year: orange skies that looked like end of days; smoke and ash that made the air dangerous to breathe; more than 10 million acres burned; billions of dollars in economic damage; families that lost their homes and everything they own; and too many — too many lost lives.”
This year is already shaping up to be a worse fire season: One year ago, there were nearly two dozen uncontained fires burning in the United States. Now, there are three dozen, according to figures cited by Biden.
“There are already about 9,000 firefighters deployed across the region — from California to New Mexico, to Utah and Nevada — and it’s only June,” he said.
Newsom echoed similar sentiments during the conference on Wednesday.
“The hots are getting hotter; the dries are getting drier,” Newsom expressed. “The realities of climate change are here, and they’re here decades ahead of when we had anticipated…(we) don’t have enough firefighters — period, full stop.”
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