{"id":163653,"date":"2026-03-15T01:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T01:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/163653\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T01:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T01:35:15","slug":"one-third-of-nyc-ems-workers-plan-to-leave-jobs-due-to-lack-of-pay-parity-unions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/163653\/","title":{"rendered":"One-third of NYC EMS workers plan to leave jobs due to lack of pay parity: unions"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a third of the city\u2019s emergency medical technicians and paramedics are expected to leave this year as they continue to suffer from a crippling pay disparity<\/a> that\u2019s left some employees so destitute that they\u2019re living in homeless shelters, union leaders said as they called on the City Council for some much-needed relief.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a Council budget hearing for the FDNY on Friday, Oren Barzilay, the president of EMS Local 2507<\/a>, said 1,500 medical first responders \u201care projected to quit the service in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city only has 4,369 EMS members, who are the lowest-paid first responders in the five boroughs.<\/p>\n

Such a devastating drop in personnel would certainly delay response times for medical emergencies<\/a>, which have already increased by more than two minutes since 2021, Barzilay said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause EMS is hemorrhaging EMTs, response times are up,\u201d the union head said, adding that 80% of the 911 calls to the FDNY are for medical emergencies. \u201cMedical-call volume is already at record high levels and only going up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the unsung heroes of New York City \u2014 but we aren\u2019t treated as heroes,\u201d Barzilay said. \u201cThe strain on our EMS ranks is real. And it is made worse by the staggering pay disparities our EMS heroes are forced to endure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union pitch for pay parity comes as the city marks the 30th anniversary of the shotgun wedding that merged EMS and FDNY into a single entity<\/a> back in 1996.<\/p>\n

To this day, EMS members start their career with about $5,000 less than firefighters, who are in the same agency, union members said.<\/p>\n

Currently, an EMT coming out of the EMS Academy starts at a salary of $39,386, union officials said. After about five years, their salary increases to $59,000. By comparison, an FDNY firefighter earns $45,196 right out of the FDNY Academy and can earn around $110,000 after five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcDonald\u2019s employees make more in some cases,\u201d Barzilay said about EMT starting salaries, adding that the continuing low pay has forced some of his members to take drastic steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our personnel have been forced to reside in homeless shelters because they can\u2019t find affordable housing on an EMS salary,\u201d he told the Council. \u201cLet that sink in: EMS paramedics and EMTs working for the FDNY, saving lives in New York City, the greatest city in the world, living in homeless shelters. It is a stain on the honor of New York City to treat our medical emergency heroes this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contract bargaining sessions between EMS unions and City Hall are currently underway, but Barzilay and Vincent Variale, the president of the Uniformed Emergency Medical Service Officers Union, made their plea for raises to the City Council, which has been a longtime supporter of pay parity.<\/p>\n

\u201cEMS is staring down the barrel of a stunning 70% turnover rate within the next three to five years,\u201d Variale said. \u201cParamedics simply cannot afford to remain paramedics and feed their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past, the Council has proposed adding an additional $50 million to the FDNY\u2019s budget to increase EMS salaries. Variale hoped that the Council does it again for the upcoming fiscal year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is literally a matter of life and death,\u201d he stressed. \u201cWe need to adequately compensate and resource our EMS first responders, so that they can properly protect the people of our city during health emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other budget requests included upgrading the FDNY\u2019s facilities, especially city firehouses, some of which are well more than a century old.<\/p>\n

While she has no say in the city\u2019s budget negotiations with EMS unions, Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore told the Council that pay parity was a good idea for everyone involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly hope that we get EMS pay squared away and we achieve EMS parity at some point so we can increase our staffing,\u201d she told the Daily News Friday.<\/p>\n

When questioned by the Council, Bonsignore said EMS \u201cstaffing\u201d is a priority concern when it comes to reducing response times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fewer ambulances you run, the longer it takes to get an ambulance into an assignment,\u201d she said. \u201c(That) is why I\u2019ve come out so strongly in support of parity. This is not just about being fair, but this is about stabilizing an EMS system for New York. We want to create an environment where people can come and stay and be a destination itself. They can come and have a long career and help us run ambulances so that we can continue to serve the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), the chairperson of the Council\u2019s Committee on Fire and Emergency Management, said the city \u201cneeds to have some type of pay equity for our EMS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fixing antiquated FDNY facilities and making sure that these buildings get money that\u2019s been earmarked for them also must be a priority, she said. In addition, boosting fire engine crews from the current norm of four smoke eaters up to five is critical, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInfrastructure is a top priority, but we also need to have a fifth firefighter to put our fires out faster,\u201d Ariola said. \u201cYou heard Council members say they gave funding for certain items, and it still hasn\u2019t been realized whether it\u2019s generators or kitchens or bathrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve legislated these things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a third of the city\u2019s emergency medical technicians and paramedics are expected to leave this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[301,9806,67451,22797,194,9468,40297,9,24,56,63,65,64,54246,67453,67452],"class_list":["post-163653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-city-council","tag-emergency-medical-technicians","tag-ems-academy","tag-ems-members","tag-fdny","tag-homeless-shelters","tag-medical-emergencies","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-oren-barzilay","tag-pay-parity","tag-the-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}