The National Federation of Federal Employees this week urged agency leaders to do more to retain the corps of federal wildland firefighters as work to follow up on a series of temporary improvements to their pay and benefits.
The Biden administration has made improving federal firefighter compensation a key workforce priority. As recently as 2021, federal wildland firefighters made only $13 per hour, below President Biden’s $15 minimum wage for federal workers and significantly lagging behind the pay of firefighters serving in state and local governments.
In August 2021, Biden issued a series of cash bonuses to bring federal wildland firefighters’ pay equivalent to $15 per hour for that year. And last fall, Congress included provisions aimed at reforming firefighter compensation in the bipartisan infrastructure law, including increasing the pay of federal firefighters in regions where it is difficult to recruit or retain them by $20,000 per year or 50% of their base salary, whichever is lower.
In June, the Biden administration announced that those raises would go to all federal wildland firefighters, citing staffing shortages across the country. But funding provided through the infrastructure law only covered the costs of those raises through fiscal 2023, although the administration has signaled that it will work with Congress to secure appropriations and ensure the pay raises are permanent. The Office of Personnel Management is also working with agencies that employ...
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