Wildland Firefighter Entry Level Pay

General Discussion
#1275

I’ve been writing longer, I hope more thoughtful, pieces here lately, but I feel like I’ve lost the plot. My understanding is that the intent for the topic is to, in effect, help lobby for better wildland firefighter entry level pay (and title). As a person who has not done wildland firefighting for decades, I’ve stayed out of technical discussions and tried to contribute in a supportive way, because I have an interest in public safety and positive outcomes from disaster response. I’ve also accepted discipline about priorities. I don’t think balancing the Federal budget, establishing foreign policy objectives and investigating the crime of genocide* is within the scope and competency of this forum, even though most all of us care deeply about these things, and so, I caution against appeals to authorities outside the scope of the discharge of duty.

(*) as alleged by attaching “destroying America, purposely” to a list of published grievances against a particular bill, or it’s timeline.

4 Likes
#1276

Will the pay increase continue if the CR passes?

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#1277
#1278

SEC. 132. Amounts made available by section 101 for ‘‘Department of the Interior—Department-Wide Programs—Wildland Fire Management’’ and ‘‘Department of Agriculture—Forest Service—Wildland Fire Management’’ shall be available for the Federal wildland firefighter base salary increase provided under section 40803(d)(4)(B) of Public Law 117–58 and may be apportioned up to the rate for operations necessary to continue to fund such base salary increase.

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#1279

US Senate should pass House CR, as the ball rest in their court now!

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#1280

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#1281

So if im understanding that right, them passing the CR makes the pay raise permanent?

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#1282

Thats what appears. It implements the GF pay scale with associated % increase, posted a few months ago in this thread.

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#1283

And the standby pay or incident pay or whatever it is being called now is also being implemented?

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#1284

House

99% Dems voted to continue paychecks and possibly make permanent pay raises for federal ffs
43% Rep voted to have federal ffs work without a paycheck and not continue their pay increase

Senate

100% Dems voted to continue paychecks and possibly make permanent pay raises for federal ffs
19% Rep voted to have federal ffs work without a paycheck and not continue their pay increase

Just sayin…

5 Likes
#1285

The Continuing Resolution extends the ‘retention pay’ until Nov. 17th and asserts that the goal of a permanent increase is on the table for the final budget. I think the short answer is, ‘press onward’.

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#1286

100% positive news for the troop’s and their families.

ZERO% enthused OR pleased with congress for putting everyone thru these (and other) annual shenanigans.

Normal people would fix the system or re-engineer it to avoid annually occurring system show stoppers like using budget deadlines as an act of Democratic and/or fiscal responsibility. The entire batch of congress should be un-hired and de-mobilized back to their civilian lives asap…

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#1287

Negative. Keeps the incentive going another 45 days. Gives them time to implement the % pay raises and “ portal to portal”

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#1289

How fast would we get a proper budget if they permanently lost pay every day it was overdue?

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#1290

They all have money so I doubt they would still care.

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#1291

Agree 100% Too many enter Congress as “Thousandaires” and leave 20+ year LATER MILLIONAIRES. OUR Founding Father’s wrote the Declaration of Independence to escape a Monarchy. The Constitution was written to codify our inalienable rights. We were supposed to be lead by citizens representation. Instead we have a ruling Monarchy :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: that only cares about themselves.

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#1292

This guy governments !

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#1293

https://wildfiretoday.com/category/firefighter-pay/

#1294

The one party that public safety unions always endorse in D.C. is the same party that its member pulled the “fire” (no pun intended) alarm to interfere with the vote to keep the government open. It’s clear that party wanted a shut down for their political agenda. The moral of the story is quit blindly following, endorsing this party as automatic. Make them earn the endorsement and support. This would be far more beneficial to get the attention of this party and make them deliver on wages, salaries, benefits, etc. for the federal fire service members. Right now, they know they have the fire unions in their pocket and don’t really care about delivering the goods. That’s fact! Try something new politically, what else do you have to lose? Wishing the federal firefighting brothers and sisters good luck in this fight. Nobody wins if nobody wants this job due to wages, salaries, etc. #Godspeed

6 Likes
#1295

Sorry everyone. Been a long week! I know it’s been said already here. But we were able to secure a extension on the retention bonus. We’ve been working with house and senate leadership on both sides to ensure that this pay is made permanent. We have 45 days to keep the momentum and to keep reminding Congress. It has the potential to be passed as a stand alone Bill. But I also see it moving forward in a bigger vehicle that will get passed. Now it’s our jobs to ensure they don’t chop it up or add something that doesn’t benefit boots on the ground. Nov 14 is the new deadline!

10 Likes