After years of pushing for pay reforms, federal wildland firefighters have secured a permanent pay increase through the spending package Congress passed last week.
The continuing resolution, which the Senate cleared in a vote of 54-46, contained a provision to create new pay tables for all federal wildland firefighters, including all temporary and seasonal employees.
The new pay scale will replace the currently held pay boosts for federal wildland firefighters, which amount to the lower between either $20,000 or a 50% increase to base salary. In some cases, the new pay scale will give wildland firefighters a more than 30% pay raise, compared with the rates they were making prior to 2021.
Wildland firefighters first received a two-year salary boost as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Following the initial two years of higher pay rates, the funding for the pay boost was incrementally extended, resulting in wildland firefighters repeatedly facing pay cliffs as lawmakers debated various spending packages.
Federal wildland firefighters pushed for several years to turn the temporary pay raise into a permanent pay reform for the workforce. Many advocates have said a pay raise is critical to recruitment and retention of wildland firefighters. The National Federation of Federal Employees, a union representing wildland firefighters, had previously warned of a mass exodus without a permanent pay solution for the frontline workers.
“Federal wildland firefighters can now breathe a sigh of relief, knowing their pay will not be drastically cut,” NFFE National President Randy Erwin said in a statementthis week.
But the federal union is now turning its attention to further challenges facing the frontline federal workforce.
“Our work is far from over,” Erwin said. “With the pay cliff resolved, we must now focus on recruitment and retention, housing, rest and recuperation, mental health resources and ensuring competitive wages for the incredible work our nation’s wildland firefighters perform.”
Between staffing at the Department of Interior and the Agriculture Department’s Forest Service, there are a combined total of roughly 17,000 federal wildland firefighters.
Wildland firefighters won’t see new pay rates until late April
The new, permanent pay scale is effective starting March 23, according to the enacted legislation. The current pay period will be the final one where wildland firefighters will see the previous, temporary pay boost.
There will be a gap, however, between when wildland firefighters lose their temporary pay boost, and when they start receiving the pay rates under the new pay scale. Wildland firefighters’ paychecks will reflect the new pay rates starting April 29, according to an Interior Department spokesperson.
The spokesperson said the agency has been “proactively preparing for the passage of permanent pay reform,” but that there is still “a short series of steps” needed before the new salary tables can be implemented.
Because of the gap, wildland firefighters will spend several weeks earning the lower pay rates they had prior to 2021. But once the new pay scale kicks in, the employees will get backpay for all interim paychecks.
Once transitioned to the new pay scale, federal wildland firefighters will see pay raises on a sliding scale — depending on where they fall on the General Schedule. Moving upward through the GS levels, the raise will amount to 3% less per GS level.
For instance, a GS-5 firefighter will receive a 30% raise, and a GS-6 firefighter will receive a 27% raise. But at the higher levels of the General Schedule, a GS-13 firefighter will receive a 6% raise, and a GS-14 firefighter will receive a 3% raise — prior to any locality pay adjustments.
The wage increases in the new pay scale generally fall below what wildland firefighters were making with the temporary pay boost from the infrastructure law.
For example, prior to 2021, a GS-6, step 1, firefighter would have been earning a base pay rate of $21.54 per hour, or about $45,000 annually.
With the temporary salary boost, that same employee would have been receiving an hourly base pay rate of $31.12, or about $65,000 in salary for the last few years.
Under the new pay scale, that same employee will earn a base pay rate of $27.36 per hour, or a salary of about $57,000.
Still, NFFE officials viewed the new pay scale as a largely positive change for the frontline workforce. Because the higher pay is now part of a permanently higher pay scale — rather than a temporary bonus added on top of lower base pay rates — the union said employees will see additional benefits from the higher base rates. The permanent raises will now also be reflected in employees’ overtime pay, hazard pay, Thrift Savings Plan contributions and retirement benefits.
Additionally, when on assignment outside their official duty station for more than 36 hours, employees will also now earn a premium pay rate worth 4.5 times their base pay. Premium pay earnings will be capped to the equivalent daily earnings of a GS-10, step 10, and limited to no more than $9,000 per year.
The new pay scale also establishes “premium standby pay,” meaning wildland firefighters can earn wages for overnight hours when they are stationed away from their homes for extended periods of time.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said continuing to invest in wildland firefighters is “essential” to addressing wildfire season, which has grown longer and more intense in recent years.
“These firefighters endure extreme conditions and grueling work to safeguard our homes, businesses and natural resources,” Burgum said in a statement. “This permanent pay increase ensures they are fairly compensated for their sacrifices and strengthens our ability to recruit and retain top-tier talent in this essential profession.”
Tom Schultz, chief of the Forest Service, said he was “deeply grateful” for the pay reforms for wildland firefighters.
“This is critical to ensure wildland firefighters receive the pay and recognition they have long deserved,” Schultz said in a statement. “With this step forward, the Forest Service is committed to implementing these changes seamlessly and continuing to support the courageous women and men who protect our nation.”
Coming RIFs create workforce uncertainty
The new pay reforms address just one of the many challenges federal wildland firefighters face. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued multiple reports that highlight broader difficulties with recruitment and retention of the frontline workers. Beyond pay, GAO said wildland firefighters also experience limited opportunities for career advancement, poor work-life balance, mental health issues and challenges in the hiring process.
At the same time, the future of staffing for federal wildland firefighters remains unclear. Despite recent reinstatements of probationary federal employees, agencies have also just submitted their initial plans for “large-scale” reductions in force (RIFs), creating uncertainties for large swaths of the federal workforce.
The Forest Service said wildland firefighting positions are exempt from the current hiring freeze, and all of the probationary firings that occurred were in non-firefighting positions.None of the previously fired workers were “operational” firefighters, according to the agency.
“Operational readiness is notimpacted,” a Forest Service spokesperson said by email.
An Interior Department spokesperson similarly said wildland firefighters were exempt from the initial probationary terminations, given that the positions deal with public safety.
“Wildland firefighting is a multi-agency effort, and we have established procedures and resource prioritization processes in place to ensure effective response and coordination across agencies,” the spokesperson said by email.
But NFFE said although Interior and the Forest Service did not terminate employees whose main job is firefighting, the layoffs could still affect the agencies’ overall firefighting capabilities. At the Forest Service, for instance, there were terminations of other related positions, such as timber markers, botanistsand recreation technicians — many of whom are trained as firefighters and work secondarily as wildland firefighters as needed, according to NFFE.
NFFE estimated that somewhere between one-third and one-half of the probationary layoffs at the Forest Service were qualified firefighters, despite “wildland firefighter” not being their main job title.
It’s unlikely the anticipated RIFs at Interior and the Forest Service would directly impact wildland firefighters, given that most “public safety” positions have been exempted from layoffs so far. But NFFE still expressed concerns about significant downstream effects on the wildland firefighting workforce as a result of any RIFs. The federal union said staff reductions could end up removing employees in “collateral duty” positions, such as botanists or technicians. Those layoffs would ultimately impact the logistical operations of wildland firefighting, such as repairing vehicles and equipment, or running supplies between locations.
Still, the Forest Service said it plans to continue preparing for, and responding to, wildfire incidents.
“Protecting the people and communities we serve, as well as the infrastructure,businessesand resources they depend on to grow and thrive,remainsa top priority for the USDA and the Forest Service,” an agency spokesperson said. “We are incredibly proud of our firefighters, and we will ensure they have the training, tools and resources they need to work alongside our state and local partners, as well as private landowners, to continue the work to protect lives and livelihoods.”
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