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Pay · 33-2011

Firefighters earn $59,280 a year at the midpoint

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The lowest tenth are paid about $34,910, the highest tenth about $101,040 — figures from the 2025 federal wage survey.

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$59,280median a year · United States
$28.50an hour $63,630average 345,990people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$44,49025th $59,280median $77,25075th
$34,91010th percentile $101,04090th percentile
$44,490a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$100,960best-paying state · New York
$33,120lowest-paying state · Louisiana
+70%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $100,960 in New York and $33,120 in Louisiana — a gap of $67,840 a year.

Firefighter earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Firefighter pay rate, hourly to annual

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$59,280a year

Examples

Resumes written for this line of work.

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A resume for firefighters

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Fire incident reporting systemsMicrosoft WordMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft PowerPointMicrosoft Office softwareMicrosoft AccessAffiliated Computer Services ACS FIREHOUSE
  • Rescued survivors from burning buildings, accident sites, and water hazards.
  • Administered first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation to injured persons or provide emergency medical care such as basic or advanced life support.
  • Dressed with equipment such as fire-resistant clothing and breathing apparatus.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Place 412 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 48% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 410 First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers $59,320
  2. 411 Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare $59,300
  3. 412 Firefighters $59,280
  4. 413 Traffic Technicians $59,090
  5. 414 Reinforcing Iron and Rebar Workers $58,970

Firefighter wages, state by state

The 41 states where the most people do this work, of 50 with a published figure: their medians range by 3.05 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
New York $100,960 $56,390 $56,390 — $106,440 12,950
Washington $94,520 $47,640 $47,640 — $123,980 7,560
California $85,120 $52,390 $52,390 — $136,150 31,470
New Jersey $84,130 $47,920 $47,920 — $123,940 7,500
Illinois $78,380 $38,900 $38,900 — $106,060 18,400
Connecticut $77,630 $51,320 $51,320 — $85,500 2,970
District of Columbia $75,870 $61,050 $61,050 — $99,760 1,480
Colorado $74,170 $47,000 $47,000 — $114,170 6,510
Maryland $73,810 $48,030 $48,030 — $98,770 5,340
Pennsylvania $73,460 $48,620 $48,620 — $89,190 5,020
Massachusetts $72,800 $49,730 $49,730 — $98,130 11,940
Oregon $70,900 $38,800 $38,800 — $104,070 3,790
Rhode Island $67,380 $56,110 $56,110 — $76,620 1,620
Nevada $66,570 $47,600 $47,600 — $101,450 2,640
Indiana $62,780 $38,460 $38,460 — $81,890 8,530
Texas $60,180 $40,020 $40,020 — $77,170 28,170
Ohio $59,370 $34,420 $34,420 — $84,010 18,100
Arizona $59,280 $36,700 $36,700 — $88,220 7,500
Virginia $58,670 $38,310 $38,310 — $77,310 11,160
Florida $58,550 $37,260 $37,260 — $93,310 24,570
New Hampshire $56,620 $35,450 $35,450 — $78,570 2,700
Iowa $55,810 $32,240 $32,240 — $87,720 2,170
Michigan $54,640 $37,190 $37,190 — $78,550 6,610
Oklahoma $49,710 $31,620 $31,620 — $77,560 4,150
Tennessee $49,300 $33,910 $33,910 — $70,460 7,020
Missouri $49,080 $31,140 $31,140 — $79,360 6,580
Utah $48,310 $27,660 $27,660 — $80,320 2,870
Maine $48,290 $35,740 $35,740 — $63,740 2,480
Alabama $47,600 $29,770 $29,770 — $76,190 7,260
Idaho $47,320 $30,280 $30,280 — $81,190 2,240
Wisconsin $46,850 $29,390 $29,390 — $77,050 8,120
Georgia $46,550 $33,000 $33,000 — $61,510 12,700
Kansas $45,900 $32,810 $32,810 — $76,110 3,360
South Carolina $42,570 $29,130 $29,130 — $62,150 7,780
New Mexico $41,590 $31,200 $31,200 — $57,780 2,420
Arkansas $39,690 $28,680 $28,680 — $60,860 2,480
Minnesota $38,110 $27,510 $27,510 — $70,380 5,810
North Carolina $37,940 $29,360 $29,360 — $61,940 19,410
Kentucky $37,150 $27,870 $27,870 — $60,720 5,150
Mississippi $35,880 $26,850 $26,850 — $51,310 2,920
Louisiana $33,120 $22,510 $22,510 — $56,670 5,230

Questions people often ask

What is a firefighter’s yearly income?

A firefighter makes a median of $59,280 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $44,490 and $77,250.

What is a firefighter’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $28.50 an hour; the average is $63,630 a year.

What is the starting pay for a firefighter?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $44,490 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $34,910.

Which state pays firefighters the most?

New York, with a median of $100,960 a year.

How many people work as firefighters?

About 345,990 in the United States — number 412 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays nearly the same

Median pay within $270 of what firefighters earn — $59,280 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations