Have an interview this week with a fire service. Would hire on as a medic and be sent to fire school per my understanding.

Their online pay shows entry fire as ~$45k yearly based on a 56 hr work week. ~$15 an hr. My dad is FD elsewhere and mentioned flsa OT of being 8 or 12 hrs weekly (he's been there so long he doesn't remember the exact numbers).


What is this flsa OT, and do depts normally include in the base pay? There's also Cert pay listed and I talked to a current guy who mentioned a very very sizable bonus for being assigned to a medic.


Basically, how does the pay work at your civil service 24/48 dept? And does anyone have experience with hiring on as an experienced medic and then going to FF school while working as a medic for them at the same time?


I'll be asking a lot about this stuff in interview as the job is a 90 min commute vs my 15. And it's a pretty big paycut just going off the listed base. Trying to figure out the benefits and incentives and be prepared for interview.

a 24/48 shift will average a 56 hour week. FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) says anything over 53 hours has to be overtime, so overtime hours have to be added to the base. Usually, the FLSA will be based on a certain pay cycle (ours was 27 days) and if you  worked all the days in the cycle, you would get about 12 hours of 1/2 time on top of your regular pay.

There are different pay cycles other than 27 days, so the amount of FLSA pay will vary from department to department, depending on which cycle they run. Some departments toss in a Kelly day off to reduce the total hours of hours worked per cycle to avoid the extra cost. Others have gone to a fourth shift, which reduces the hours per week to way below 56. Hours/pay is done a lot of different ways across the US.

Also, management positions are exempt. And things can change based on interpretation of the FLSA regs.

Looks like it'll be on 28 day cycle. Thanks for the info. Exactly what I was looking for.

You're welcome. It's a great career! I did my 30 years.

Stay safe out there...

We have 3 different pay cycles, a 104 hour, 112, and 120.

104 is straight pay, no overtime
112 is straight pay for 106 hours (53 per week) and 6 hours at time and a half
120 is straight time for 106 hours and one and a half for 14 hours

We had a 24 day cycle called a corridor. There were 10 hours of OT built into a corridor. Any OT in the corridor was time and a half. So, our corridor pay was itemized on our paychecks. Since there were 15.2 corridors vs 12 months the corridors and bi-monthly checks didn't always line up. Basically if a corridor ends before the 15th, the corridor pays on the 30th but it's only 50%. your OT was payed at base rate on the 15th and 30th. So it was possible to have 2 OT's by the 15th and 3 50% corridor hours so your pay would look like 2 ot's at time and a half and a half on top. It was a giant pain in the ass and takes a good 6 moths to figure out by watching your paycheck.
In the end its worth it. My old department is so short staffed and fire weather staffing is through the roof so guys are getting forced 3-4 times a month. Guys are actually burned out on OT. When I ran the battalion staffing desk I thought this was the only job going where money was forced down peoples throats.
I probably made it all clear as mud.

Sounds interesting haha

I'm so glad we have a negotiated work week of 48 hours. 24 on, 48 off, kelly day every 7th shift so it stays the same day of the week for guys.

To your overtime point, most guys on my department have about 400 hours this far this year. Average last year was well over 500 hours per member. I guess it's cheaper to pay boat loads of OT to maintain staffing rather than hire a few full time guys so guess what the city chose?

Man when I hear how other FD's get paid, I thank the lord we have such a great union president. He got our Dept. into 24/72's, and life has been great for it. I would say I average one time and a half OT shift per week. Could be more, but I like my family time, and it keeps me near the top of the list for call backs. 8 shifts a month also keeps the boys side jobs lucrative.

The town tries to hire more bodies, but retirements and transfers keep the OT coming.

Ten more years, if my numbers are good, then I'm moving south. I hear Northeast pensions do well down there.

I was all psyched about a new position. But sat down and thought about it and decided not to take it. Just can't handle a 3 hr commute and don't want to be coming home off shift tired and have to go right back. Gonna look closer to home.

Thanks for the feedback on scheduling. I don't think the money is gonna be worth the drive.