Why Are Paramedics So Underpaid?

Did you know the average paramedic makes only $53,000 a year?

If you’re like most people, that seems a little low. And you’d be right. That means most paramedics fall into the lower middle class.

Kind of crazy for all the good they do right?

But why is it like that? Really, it’s two major factors.

• Low Education Requirement
• How We Provide Value

Let’s check it out.

Education

One of the biggest things that gets brought up is the lack of education you need to be a paramedic.

But is it really that low?

Paramedics essentially get an associate’s degree in 10 months. It’s a lot of long days and even longer nights. I don’t really consider that a lack of education.

They’re trusted with medication administration and performing lifesaving procedures.

Plus before you can become a paramedic, you have to become an EMT. It’s quite a long process. So I guess we can’t really say paramedics are under-educated, can we?

So, what exactly is it?

What Value Do Paramedics Provide?

Paramedics provide the ultimate value in some cases.

They save lives.

Why aren’t they paid for such a high value service? Realistically it’s because the people they help aren’t the ones who pay them. They pay the departments they work for.

Paramedics end up being these weird middlemen.

They get paid a flat rate. No matter how hard they work, how many calls they run, how many lives they save, they make the same amount hour after hour. But all those bills that get paid after the call is over?

That goes to the company that hires the medics.

They don’t see a penny. Makes sense. It would be pretty unethical to go up to someone having an emergency and ask them pay you extra to save their life.

But it really puts EMS workers on the short end of the stick.

What Can You Do About It

Aggressive Unions

Unfortunately, this is one of the slowest routes to getting a pay raise.

Unions don’t have as much power as a lot of people think. At least, they don’t have as much say as they used to.

Unions can request all the pay increases they want.

But those requests have to be backed by data. Cost of living, relevant other departments having higher pay. It’s not a good place to be if you have to wait for your employer to agree to pay you more.

Increase Educational Requirements

Hate to say it, but maybe we just make paramedic a bachelor’s degree.

Yes, it would take longer to get. But at the end of the day we’d have more well trained providers. And with a four year degree, more departments would be ok paying their medics more.

Incentive Pay

Imagine a world where you got paid more for doing your job well.

Crazy, right?

That’s why this is my favorite pay structure for paramedics. Fire departments and companies can choose what they want to incentivize and create a pay structure for their employees. The better they fit the bill, the higher the pay.

Say they wanted to improve the customer service they provided.

Giving paramedics a bonus for every good letter they received would make a lot of paramedics a lot nicer very quickly. You’d see a lot more transports and a lot more smiles on medics’ faces.

Or they can incentivize certain aspects of reports.

Like the ones the department needs for billing. That information makes it faster and easier for the department to get their money from patients and insurance companies. If paramedics were paid better for faster, and more complete, reports, the companies would make more money.

It only seems natural they would be able to give a bonus to the paramedics who are best at that.

It’s a crazy world we live in.

I just want to see our EMS workers make livable wages in hard times.