They call themselves New York’s Best — but when it comes to pay, FDNY EMS members say they get the least.
At a raucous rally Wednesday outside City Hall dozens of city medics and their supporters called on Mayor de Blasio to close the long-standing pay gap between Emergency Medical Service employees and other uniformed workers like firefighters and cops.
City emergency medical technicians and paramedics earn base salaries that are sharply lower than their FDNY firefighter colleagues — even though EMS responds to roughly 1.5 million of the 1.8 million emergency calls the department gets annually.
The starting pay for a FDNY EMT is roughly $35,000, and rises to $50,000 over five years, according to the city.