Firefighter salaries by state and department

What firefighters earn at each city, county and district fire department: what they actually earned, overtime included, next to the official pay range, with engineer, captain and battalion chief pay alongside. So far the site covers every California city, county and fire district fire department; in New York, the FDNY and the Buffalo Fire Department; in Kentucky, Louisville Fire. More states follow as we collect their data.

2025 dataCalifornia$186,123average total pay of full-year firefighters115,357 firefighters230 department pagesCompare every California departmentfiscal year 2025 dataNew York$149,286average total pay of full-year firefighters29,667 firefighters2 department pagesSee New York2025 dataKentucky$84,654average total pay of full-year firefighters3222 firefighters1 department pageSee Kentucky

Work in progress

Firefighter pay in more states, as we collect the data

This page will compare firefighter pay across states. For now it covers every California city, county and fire district fire department; in New York, the FDNY and the Buffalo Fire Department; in Kentucky, Louisville Fire. Each state publishes local government pay differently, so we add states one at a time, after checking their files.

Until then, each state's page has everything we've published so far.

Sources for the state figures

Total pay is gross wages before tax, overtime included, of firefighters who worked roughly the full year. Each state's page explains its full-year rule.

  1. State Controller's Office, Government Compensation in California, 2025: wages of every firefighter position.
  2. City of New York, Citywide Payroll Data (Fiscal Year); City of Buffalo, Open Payroll, fiscal year 2025 (July 2024 to June 2025): wages of every firefighter position.
  3. Louisville Metro Government, Louisville Metro KY Employee Salary Data (Louisville Open Data), 2025: wages of every firefighter position.

How we read the data