PoliticsNY
By Barbara Russo-Lennon | July 17, 2025
Emergency medical technicians are fuming after the NYC Council approved on Monday a pay increase for app-based grocery-delivery workers that leaves the city’s medical first responders earning less than most deliveristas.
FDNY EMTs, city workers who respond to life-saving emergencies ranging from heart attacks and seizures to stabbings and shootings, are the busiest, but likely most impoverished first responders in the country, according to Oren Barzilay, president of FDNY EMS Local 2507, the union that represents the city’s EMTs and paramedics.
“This is not just a gigantic wage gap, but a complete and moral failure to the medically trained, frontline first responders who put their own lives in danger to save New Yorkers,” Barzilay said.
Barzilay made the strong statement after the NYC Council passed legislation this week to mandate a minimum wage increase for 20,000 grocery delivery workers. The increase brings their hourly wage to $21.44 per hour, which Barzilay said is 13% higher than the FDNY’s emergency medical responder salaries.
The pay boost is set to match raises mandated by lawmakers for app-based restaurant delivery workers, which they received in April 2025.
Barzilay said the union has been without a contract for three years.
“The city steadfastly refuses to bargain in good faith, while our brave EMTs can barely afford rent and food,” he said. “Apparently, they are trying to starve our members out of work, and the byproduct is a brain-drain of 70% of EMTs quitting within five years.”
EMS Local 2507 represents about 4,000 members. With an hourly wage of $18.94 per hour, the members make about $2.50 per hour below the minimum legal wage for the city’s private sector food delivery workers. The starting salary for FDNY EMTs is $39,386, increasing to $59,534 after five years.
Last year, FDNY EMTs and paramedics responded to 1,630,446 medical emergencies, a 15.4% jump from the number of medical emergencies at the peak of the COVID outbreak in 2020, according to union statistics.