Should Firefighters Get Paid?

1007 Words3 Pages

First responders should get paid more if firefighters don't make enough money. Constantly risking their lives for the community and getting very little in return. Having this problem causes less and less fires every year. They cannot support a family of 53,000 dollars a year. This drives potential new recruits away. Many people look down on first responders jobs because school is not needed to be able to achieve this career. But society would not be able to function without firefighters. Life is drastically different and way more dangerous. People don't realize how important they are or think about them on a day-to-day basis, but they truly protect all of us. They risk and sacrifice themselves for people. Many firefighters get into this profession not …show more content…

While nine dollars may not be true to the Illinois wage for firefighters, somewhere in the United States a firefighter is only getting paid nine dollars to save a life. This should not be an acceptable first responders wage, no matter the state of employment or level of firefighter. All firefighters put their lives on the line at some point in time. It's only fair that they get paid a living wage. They took this issue to Congress because of the amount of wildfires they get in the West. They were not getting enough people to work as firefighters. Joe Biden temporarily raised pay for more than 11,300 federal wildland firefighters to at least $15 an hour, up from just $13. Firefighters then saw annual pay raises of $20,000 or 50% of a firefighter’s base pay”(Zanona). By the government raising pay, it helped people stay in that career. Having the government change the pay is the best answer to the pay issue because it ensures that firefighters around the country are getting paid what they deserve. Especially around the fire prone time of year. If they aren't paying enough, they have no one to put out all the wildfires that are happening in

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