Wildland Firefighter Entry Level Pay

General Discussion
#607

No one would blame anyone for doing the same. It breaks my heart though. Dedicated people, hard work, danger and the feds can’t get out of their own damn way to improve the pay. Congress got their raise though.

In 1994 I got paid min wage to be a federal forestry tech. 28 years later my son is now
Starting his fire career with the feds and getting paid min wage at least for now. I was always an optimist. Thought the FWFSA would get through and get decent pay, portal
To portal. So disappointing.

As far as the pace couldn’t agree more its getting crazy and waining on peoples mental health.

@Fire3376 take care of yourself.

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#608

my heart goes out to you. I agree with App, this bull needs to correct coarse. take care

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#609

You gotta take care of yourself first and good on you for not falling into the thinking you need to there trap.

If they were serious about making actual meaningful change they would have done it, they see no incentive to get it done. But of course these are the decision makers that got us USAjobs so yeah.

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#610

I left 2 years ago and it was the best decision I’ve made in a long time. I ended up w a private company. Before I saw the light I looked at details on HR connect and figured federal is the only way to go. Now I make more than double the pay and I’m home every night

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#611

4.6 proposed

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#612

4.6% is still a pay cut when you consider inflation being 9.7%

“But it’s better than nothing!” Lol

The exodus will continue until Tim’s bill is passed or something else that drastically increases pay.

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#613

The Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification Act…

There isn’t much progress, but this is the second time in a month that a co-sponsor has signed on. That means, ever - ever so slowly, that more consensus or more broad based support is being gained. It’s gaining a link when you need a chain, but it’s positive movement. Earlier this month it was Rep. Spanberger, Abigail Davis [D-VA-7] who signed on.

H.R.5631 - Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act (117th Congress)
Sponsor: Rep. Neguse, Joe [D-CO-2] (Introduced 10/19/2021)

Has changes in:

  • Cosponsors (1 new, 10 total)
    • Cosponsor: 03/28/2022: Rep. Strickland, Marilyn [D-WA-10]
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#614

Hearing rumors from upper management that we will not be getting to pay increase and new firefighters series until October. Hearing they are going to ask for an extension. Also they are also trying to get out of the back pay from when the bill was signed into LAW. If this is true, make sure you are a paying union dues member. Why should our managers be exempt.

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#615

That’s crazy, we are literally hemorrhaging employees.

All while engines can’t staff 7 day and that’s if they can even staff due to no overhead. Battalions are going vacant for the second or third year in a row with zero applicants in the hopper. They talk of all these new hires to make up for all this but no word on how to support them, shit we have stations with no running water.

I’m sure this fire season will be another busy one and as usual we will do more with less. But we gotta be at the breaking point. I know more people will leave if they just shrug us off again. We need more transparency in all of this.

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#616

Thanks for the update desert.

If confirmed, this is absolutely horrendous.

Feds agencies seem to be doing everything they can to stop and or delay the pay increase.

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#617

Last activity on H.R. 5631 was over 5 months ago 11/03/2021.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry.
Action By: Committee on Agriculture.

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#618

I warned folks when this became a discussion to not count your eggs before they are hatched. My post was removed as someone didn’t like my politics or my frank discussion. I’ve seen this play out over and over again in D.C. When I was elected years ago to a City Council I thought D.C. was about helping people, and the working class. I found out that’s not the case. These red tape bureaucracies only care about themselves and how they can benefit from their positions. The working folks are only a number to them. This White House is only interested in the radicals it serves and wasting money on things we know won’t work. This will get far worse before it gets any better.

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#619

Well now I am hearing from a reliable source, that if you are not primary fire, you will not receive anything. So my question, why do some positions that have fire as secondary, require you to have IFPM line qualifications? I hope this is wrong or there is going to be real interesting to see the reaction. If I am required to have qualifications for my position and not get this raise, why should I even be in fire, when a engine Captian will be making more than me? Leave it to the federal government to screw this all up and for it not fix the problem.

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#620

If true it will be interesting to see the response for sure. This would be breaking progress to link fuels/ fire into one “fire management”. Interesting timing with increased funding and more emphasis placed on increase pace and scale for fuels treatments on federal lands. In addition more secondary fire fuels positions that are being created to support. The last year of hiring many people have moved from primary over to newly created fuels positions in my region. The “fuels” folks pull their weight in suppression on IA and large fires during the summers and were primary fire their whole careers till this year. If secondary isn’t covered I see a decrease in support for suppression from some in protest or apps going in to go back to primary fire.

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#621

They need to show their cards, so we can prepare the blow back.

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#622

The Forest Service national budget call last week had no updates on increased salaries for firefighters as outlined in the Bipartisan Infrastructure law.

Waiting to hear back if the DOI budget call had any updates on this topic.

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#623

Its not just fuels positions that are secondary fire. Battalion chiefs and above are all secondary fire. So basically the folks who have worked their entire career to obtain quals and move into leadership positions will be left without the pay increase they deserve. The most qualified folks we have won’t get any incentive to remain with the agency. Wonder how that will work out?

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#624

I understand everyone’s doubts until the change has arrived, but I think we all need to be cautious about info from even “reliable sources”. The changes that we are talking about are huge and is a very large task for one agency let alone USDA, DOI, OPM, OMB…in such a short time frame. I believe it’s over 600 P.D.s being reviewed just from USFS. I’m now in a secondary fire position as i “moved up” in my career so I’m just as concerned, but lets hold strong and give a bit more time but also continue to ask the questions of our leadership…especially the line folks that are responsible for us. Everyone from top (W.O.) to bottom is trying to figure this out. A solid fire leader from California is now one of the primary person’s trying to move this ball forward at the W.O. Keep on fighting and communicating the need for Tim’s Act.

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#625

It’s certainly a huge undertaking. I remain hopeful the right decisions will be made. I have a lot of confidence in the individual you referenced to guide this process in the right direction.

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#626

It won’t……