Are paramedics paid or is it volunteer work?

23 comments

1. They’re paid.

2. They are paid here and they don’t make shit unfortunately. Definitely should be paid more.

3. They’re paid, but nowhere near what they’re worth. Paramedics are terribly underpaid.

4. Usually paid people have the ability to work nights here. Volunteer programs are fairly common as well usually students getting their EMT certs to transition into a career.

5. Of course they’re paid. They should be paid more because it’s a horribly trying and traumatic job

6. It’s paid regardless of day or night but it’s not very much unfortunately. Many paramedics have second jobs.

   They do have volunteer programs so I guess it’s actually both?

7. Both. Some areas have volunteer and some have paid.

8. They’re paid. Some are paid by the city/town others work for private companies

   The only “volunteer” paramedics you might find are those who volunteer for wilderness search and rescue or something like that

9. They’re paid, but not terribly well tbh.

10. Both. Paramedic is a job that people get paid to do, but people will also volunteer their time to do it in rural areas or small towns. My volunteer fire department has a number of people who are paramedics or EMTs.

11. They are paid but not paid well.

12. As with nearly everything in the US, it varies drastically by region.

13. Depends…

    In the PIT region, there is a mixture of PAID and volunteer.. and can even be so on the same agency.

    The area is overwhelmingly VFD’s for many areas, as is most of the US. And these are all VOLUNTEER, they may have a paid chief at best for some…

    Its really going to be all over the map on this one.

    Area I live now its run at the county level, and its 100% paid. The volunteers are mostly cadets in the various Explorers or Academy programs who need con-ed time as part of their program etc..

    No hard and fast rule, outside that mostly larger metro areas its paid.

    There are a lot of certifications required to be an EMT, or PM, as well as in most areas any where from 20-40+ hours of YEARLY CONTINUING EDUCATION, ie: con-ed. This include recerts for CPR, AED, etc.. Add in that a lot of areas also you may be required to be a FF as well. Most of the PAID agencies have went FF/PM|EMT as the minimum to even be on the department.

    Its a bad bad way..this is a whole different discussion on response, appropriate response, in medical calls.

14. Night is when everything happens lol, why would there be volunteers at night.

15. People responding on ambulances here generally fall into two categories–EMTs and Paramedics. EMTs generally undergo about 150 hours of initial training, and while many are paid, there are also many who are volunteers. Medics undergo about 1,000 hours of initial training, so most of them tend to be paid, although a small percentage of them are volunteer as well.

16. Both,

    Generally cities and larger towns pay for some sort of career EMS service, whether that be fire based, third service, or a private ambulance company.

    Smaller towns or villages sometimes can’t afford a fully paid service.

    My station is staffed 24/7 with two guys, so being fire based we ether run the fire engine or the ambulance depending on the call, with off duty personnel and volunteers coming in to staff the second or third due piece.

17. Depends where you are. And not all those driving ambulances are paramedics, again depending on location. Each state has different definitions for EMT and Paramedic. Some places pay extremely well, especially as part of a fire department (seattle is a good example). On the whole, EMT/Paramedics are woefully underpaid when they aren’t volunteer.

18. My sister used to live in a town with a volunteer fire department. In most places though, they’re paid

19. Generally all will be paid, but there are volunteer first responders, especially in more rural areas. I live in an area with a few hundred thousand people, but just outside (a mile) of the city limits. Things like our fire department are relatively small, and do partially rely on volunteers when necessary.

20. Its a mix really. The smaller the municipality the more volunteers.

21. Both. There are paid EMTs, either by the state or even ambulance companies. There are also volunteers. It honestly depends city by city.

22. It’s a very low paid job and it’s criminal. I’m a firefighter in a large city and our emergency medical services (EMS, so your paramedics) are run at the county level. I think they start at $12/h. As a firefighter I get paid $16.51/h but I also work a 24 hour shift, 10 shifts a month. I end up making about $1300 per two-week pay period. It’s not much, but I’ve learned to live a simple lifestyle and it works. Money does get tight at times though and it can be stressful. I think when I retire I only get like 80% of my highest paid years as my pension. Cops get 130% (and they’re also much better paid as is). I don’t know what paramedics get. Anyhow, I’m getting off topic. So they start at $12 and they work their asses off on a 12 hour shift. Like way harder than I work on a 24 hour shift. And the schooling they go through is very in-depth. In my opinion, they’re absolutely as capable as most nurses and they get shit on. My county is severely understaffed. We need something like 12 units running on any given shift for things to run smoothly and have good response times to assist the FD. We currently only have 7. Often times we get FEMA help and have units from around the country come and work for us at an exorbitant cost to the county. It would cheaper to just pay them what they deserve and hire people who want to stay. They get burned out and either go private, to another service, or become nurses. My brother worked private for 3 years and became a nurse because the pay was so shit. EMS gets shit on on the regular and it shows by our nationwide shortage of paramedics.

23. They’re paid, but their pay is shit. I made more than most paramedics when I started as a customer service rep in a bank call center.