Indianz.Com > News > Cronkite News: Indian Country firefighters benefit from pay raise
![Summit Trail Fire](https://indianz.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/31/summittrailfire.jpg)
As wildfires rage, federal firefighters see bump in minimum hourly pay
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Fighting wildfires did not get any easier this month, but it did get a little more profitable for thousands of full-time and temporary firefighters employed by the federal government.
That’s because the departments of Agriculture and Interior bumped the minimum wage for federal firefighters from $13 an hour up to $15 an hour, a raise that was expected to show up in paychecks last week, the agencies said.
About 11,300 of the 14,500 firefighters employed by the U.S. Forest Service and another 3,500 of the 5,000 wildland firefighters employed by Interior – through agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Land Management – will see the raise.
In addition to hourly base pay, firefighters can also earn overtime and hazard pay, Larry Moore, an Agriculture spokesperson, said in an email. But the hourly increase raise will help improve pay for frontline firefighters, as well as make firefighting positions more competitive with states like California that pay two to three times the federal base pay.
![Sycamore Canyon Fire](https://indianz.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/31/SycamoreCanyonFire-scaled.jpg)
But O’Halleran said the current increase might not be enough to retain wildland firefighters in the long run, who are increasingly needed all year long, not only during fire season. “I hope it’s enough right now, but we are going to have a look at their whole package; salaries, benefits, etc,” he said. “Because we need these same full-time people in the field during the non-fire season.” For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.Climate change is making fire seasons more intense as our firefighters deal with hotter, drier conditions and more extreme fire behavior. We're working to increase frontline firefighter's pay in response to @POTUS’ call to invest in the wildland fire workforce. https://t.co/McizDksN2N
— Secretary Deb Haaland (@SecDebHaaland) August 17, 2021
Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
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