City Council approved a resolution on June 16 that could increase the minimum wage paid to all city of Austin employees from $15 per hour to $22 per hour. The resolution sponsored by Council Member Vanessa Fuentes "acknowledges the dire staffing crisis in the city" and that stagnant wages have had an impact on the city's ability to "retain and recruit experienced employees." Data from the Human Resources Department shows that from May 8, 2021, through May 21, 2022, the vacancy rate among all civilian city positions has been 15.7%. The peak vacancy rate this year was 17.5%; last year, it was 12.3%, and the year before that it was 11.5%.
The vacancy rates among sworn positions at Police, Fire, and Emergency Medical Services were likewise problematic: 12% for police, 9% for fire, and a staggering 23% for EMS. Several EMS medics addressed Council to describe how this severe staffing shortage, which they uniformly attributed to low pay amid increasingly difficult working conditions, affected their ability to provide a critical service to the people of Austin and Travis County – and the impact that has had on their personal lives.
One speaker said that his ambulance is routinely taken offline and can't respond to 911 calls because of insufficient staffing. Shelby Hindman, an EMS communications medic, said she and her husband, also a medic, are regularly called in to work mandatory overtime shifts. When that happens, they scramble to find child care for their 1-year-old. Hindman...
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