How Florida Firefighter Salaries Compare With Other States

FLORIDA — Firefighters, specifically the ones representing the fire departments in Florida, risk their lives every time they show up to work for the safety of the communities they serve.

In 2020, they have been facing not only the spread of the coronavirus but also other major challenges, including a record-setting wildfire season that has killed dozens and burned millions of acres in the western United States.

Most of them do it for free as volunteers. For the ones who do get paid as full-time firefighters, salaries across the states vary extensively.

The adjusted salary for firefighters in Florida is $50,994, according to Vio Security, a national security automation company that researched how much firefighters are paid.

Firefighters are paid the most in California, with an adjusted salary of $73,111. 2020 has been a particularly busy year for firefighters in California, as dozens of people have died from the wildfires in that state alone.

Adjusted salaries account for each state’s cost of living. Vio Security said it found the mean state salaries through the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2019 Occupational Employment and Wages report. Vio then divided the annual mean wage by the "regional price parities" — which measure the difference in price levels across the states — to find the adjusted salaries using data from the 2018 Bureau of Economic Analysis.

New Jersey, Washington, New York and Nevada round out the top five states where firefighters are paid the most.

The lowest average adjusted yearly salary for a firefighter is in Louisiana, where the study found that pay to be $34,961.

Most fire departments across the states are actually volunteer based, the study found, with good Samaritans providing service free of charge in many smaller communities. Interestingly, 70 percent of fire departments are volunteer, while only 9 percent are entirely career-based.

See the full study via Vio Security: Here’s How Much Firefighters Make In Each State