Independent Budget Office analyzed data from 2014-2024
The Chief
March 19, 2026 | BY HARPER FREEMAN
The increase in FDNY ambulance response times to life-threatening medical emergencies is likely due to short staffing in the ranks of FDNY EMS, a new Independent Budget Office report found. The audit analyzed city response time data from 2014 to 2024 and found that response times for the most serious 911 calls increased by almost one and a half minutes in the period.
The number of life-threatening advanced life support (ALS) calls that the FDNY responded to increased 31 percent, from 352,200 to 464,500 in that period, but the staffing level of paramedics to respond to those calls increased only 9 percent, from 880 to 970.
“IBO found that for the most serious calls (ALS) staffing levels have increased proportionally less than call volume,” the authors wrote in the report’s conclusion. “Lack of appropriate staffing levels for these most critical calls likely contribute to longer response times.”
For Anthony Almojera, a lieutenant paramedic and the vice president of the EMS officers’ union, the IBO report reiterates what he’s been saying since 2020: that EMS is in the middle of a staffing crisis and desperately needs support.
“Post-pandemic, people are burnt out, they have no support for their mental health, they have no financial support, what do you expect to happen?” he said. “You have to retain people and make them feel supported, and then response times will go down and patient care will improve.”
‘Nobody wants to work here’
Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507, the union representing FDNY EMTs and paramedics, said that the report’s results are “common sense.”
“Nobody wants to work here and stay here because of the low wages,” he said. “People are literally dying because of delayed response times.”
Wages for FDNY EMTs and paramedics are determined by the collective bargaining agreement the unions reach with the city, and their most recent contract expired in 2022. Union leadership has argued for years for the need for EMTs and paramedics to have pay parity with FDNY firefighters, who, on average, make far more than EMS workers.
According to union leaders, FDNY EMTs start at a salary of $39,486. After five years, EMT salaries increase to $59,000, a far cry from FDNY firefighters who start at $54,122 and increase to $105,146 after 5.5 years, according to the department.
Almojera believes that with the FDNY, unions and now the report aligned on the need for more staffing and support for EMS workers, that the Mayor will help beleaguered EMTs, paramedics and EMS officers.
“We’re hopeful that the Mamdani administration will see this and say, ‘let’s fix this.’”
The two unions have not met with the Office of Labor Relations for bargaining since November, union leadership said, and is waiting on the city to propose dates for future discussions. Barzilay too has hope that Mamdani will give EMS workers what they need.
“I have faith in the mayor that he will do right by the men and women of FDNY EMS,” he said.
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