JEMS
March 16, 2026
ByTribune Content Agency
Julian Roberts-Grmela, Thomas Tracy – New York Daily News
More than a third of the city’s emergency medical technicians and paramedics are expected to leave this year as they continue to suffer from a crippling pay disparity that’s left some employees so destitute that they’re living in homeless shelters, union leaders said as they called on the City Council for some much-needed relief.
Speaking at a Council budget hearing for the FDNY on Friday, Oren Barzilay, the president of EMS Local 2507, said 1,500 medical first responders “are projected to quit the service in 2026.”
The city only has 4,369 EMS members, who are the lowest-paid first responders in the five boroughs.
Such a devastating drop in personnel would certainly delay response times for medical emergencies, which have already increased by more than two minutes since 2021, Barzilay said.
“Because EMS is hemorrhaging EMTs, response times are up,” the union head said, adding that 80% of the 911 calls to the FDNY are for medical emergencies. “Medical-call volume is already at record high levels and only going up.”
“We are the unsung heroes of New York City — but we aren’t treated as heroes,” Barzilay said. “The strain on our EMS ranks is real. And it is made worse by the staggering pay disparities our EMS heroes are forced to endure.”
The union pitch for pay parity comes as the city marks the 30th anniversary of the shotgun wedding that merged EMS and FDNY into a single entity back in 1996.
To this day, EMS members start their career with about $5,000 less than firefighters, who are in the same agency, union members said.
Currently, an EMT coming out of the EMS Academy starts at a salary of $39,386, union officials said. After about five years, their salary increases to $59,000. By comparison, an FDNY firefighter earns $45,196 right out of the FDNY Academy and can earn around $110,000 after five years.
“McDonald’s employees make more in some cases,” Barzilay said about EMT starting salaries, adding that the continuing low pay has forced some of his members to take drastic steps.
“Some of our personnel have been forced to reside in homeless shelters because they can’t find affordable housing on an EMS salary,” he told the Council. “Let that sink in: EMS paramedics and EMTs working for the FDNY, saving lives in New York City, the greatest city in the world, living in homeless shelters. It is a stain on the honor of New York City to treat our medical emergency heroes this way.”