Working for minimum wage in EMS: Why?

[pacman]

I volunteer at my school's first aid squad. The call volume isn't big at all and I'm on campus when I'm on call. My closest friends are on the squad and I gain respect from my peers and the school administration ( always a plus).

However, I also work a municipal 911 squad as a paid EMT. I make $12 and I'm allowed to work up to 24 hours a week ( I usually do a straight 24 shift to get it out of the way). I get much more exposure doing it and finally have a part time job that I love. I'm still in the works of trying to get a a second part time 911 gig. Minimum wage in New Jersey is now $7.15 an hour.

The money is great for a college kid trying to pay some bills, gas, and tuition. It sure beats working customer service for anywhere between $8-11 an hour. I had a job once as a telemarketer for $15 and hour, but I HATED it. EMS is the perfect job for me at this moment. I could work once or twice a week allowing me to go to school, and it offers the excitement and experience I want. Not to mention, its the only job where not only am I allowed to sleep, but actually encouraged to sleep. "Its 2 am son, you should get some sleep". Wow...

I'll be honest though, there are moments when I can't stand it. It is physical labor, sometimes the dealings with people are not so sweet, and it is dangerous. It wouldn't be bad volunteering if I had a decent paying job during the day. However, I don't know if I would do it as my primary job for minimum wage. $7.15 x 40 hours = $286 a week. OUCH :shock: . ( I make that much now, but only work 24 hours) How do people even get through rent on that? You could work at Walmart in an air conditioned store and make more.

[rock_shoes]

I simply wouldn't do it for minimum wage. Just work in private heavy industry untill you can afford to upgrade to a license level that pays better. Not that I'm unwilling to make some sacrifices to work in a 911 system. Currently I'm making $25.75 working in a saw-mill while I make the transition over to working public ambulance for BCAS. With BCAS I'll be taking close to an $8 an hour pay-cut to get started. The difference being that is still more than double minimum wage. The experience while I wait to start into the PCP program(hopefully this coming January) is worth the sacrifice.

The vollys might not like this comment, but the truth is I'm glad we don't have them were I live. If we did we would be facing the same low wage issues some of the other members of the furum are.

P.S. Sorry for any spelling errors the SpellCheck Wasn't working when I made the post.

Ed

[mindenmedic]

our emt-b make starting 6/hr but we work 48/72 cycle so that comes to $33k per year.

we run an ave of 3 calls / day (very rural)

[UMSTUDENT]

I think as a profession that we often forget about some of the truly great jobs there are in EMS, especially for the amount of work you do.

Think about it. Where I'm from, a person can join one of the several county-based EMS/Fire systems and go through an 18-20 week academy. During this time they will be trained as a firefighter, rescue technician, and basic EMT. They will start at around 34 to 37 thousand dollars a year while in the academy and make a significant jump after finishing...maybe 40,000 dollars a year. Then, if they choose, the county will pay them to take a 10 month paramedic-cook-book class through that same academy and their pay will jump to almost 49-52,000 dollars a year. Language proficiency? Add a couple thousand a year. This is all BEFORE overtime.

This is an IAFF, union supported job with a 20-25 year retirement, great health benefits, sick-days with procurement, vacation time, Kelly days, and 24-48, or 24-72 hour shifts! One local jurisdiction works 24 hours on, 48 off, then 24 hours on and then 92 hours off! Some of the paramedics (those that have no lives) are clearing triple digits a year with overtime. Moderate overtime consumption can bring you into the 75,000 dollar range with a decent amount of time for family and fun.

This is all out of high school with practically, IMHO, little real educational requirements. Someone with a degree in EMS, or anything for that matter, starts in the same place...at the same relative salary. Only recently have some of the jurisdictions given advancement preference to college educated individuals.

How many other jobs out there let you do what we do, with such a decent salary? I know this isn't common throughout all of the country, but think about what we could really make if we all would prescribe to higher education standards.

[BEorP]

We have to raise the amount of money that Ambulances make.

Not just allow them to bill more, but actually increase the amount that they are paid.

I believe the avg. collection rate nationally is right around 50%, a little above or a little below I don't remember.

...

Also let's look at your teaching money for a moment. Whoever you are teaching for and paying you (I assume either a company or a service or something) collects the money at 100% and then pays you.

I wonder if you would be making twice the min. wage in the U.S. if whoever you were working for was only collecting from 50% of the people in class and then only getting 50% from the people that pay?

I'm not saying either way, I'm just wondering aloud.

It sounds like a valid point that maybe ambulance services can't actuallty affoard to pay their employees a good wage although I am really not familiar enough with the American system to be able to comment much on what you have said. One thing that I would say is that this seems to be a problem that could be solved with universal heathcare.

[BEorP]

So it seems like most of the replies to the initial question of "Would you work for minimum wage in EMS?" have been "no."

For those of you who wouldn't, would that mean that you would not have gotten into EMS if in your area you could only get minimum wage as an EMT-B? Would you move to a different area where you could make more? Would you just go right to EMT-P?

[parabrandi]

I can remember just a few years ago that i went to work for 5.55 and hour on a 16 hour truck. Ahhhh memories.

[GulDukat]

It sounds like a valid point that maybe ambulance services can't actuallty affoard to pay their employees a good wage although I am really not familiar enough with the American system to be able to comment much on what you have said. One thing that I would say is that this seems to be a problem that could be solved with universal heathcare.

Maybe, but it could also make the problem worse. Hard to say based on the American economy.

In theory Medicare is somewhat universal health care for disabled, elderly and other circumstance patients.

However this has been one of the biggest, if not the biggest problems with health care money since the mid 90's when the gov. required providers to accept Medicare assignment.

It's only gotten worse since then all across the board.

Health care in America is a weird animal for sure.

[somedic]

As stated many times before on here: emt basics are a dime a dozen and the certification is the MINIMUM requirement to drive an ambulance in a EMS system. GO straight away to PARAMEDIC school asap.

Somedic sends.

[BEorP]

As stated many times before on here: emt basics are a dime a dozen and the certification is the MINIMUM requirement to drive an ambulance in a EMS system. GO straight away to PARAMEDIC school asap.

Somedic sends.

I know that that has been stated many times on here. I'm not asking why EMT-Bs can only make minimum age here, but rather if you would have been willing to work for it when you were an EMT-B.

Are you just saying that you would go right to EMT-P if you could only get paid minimum wage as an EMT-B? And what if you were required to have EMT-B experience before doing this?