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Home Safety & Preparedness Natural Disasters Cash Ablaze: California Firefighters’ Overtime Costs Jump 65%

Cash Ablaze: California Firefighters’ Overtime Costs Jump 65%

Due to large increases in wildfires across the state of California, the overtime costs for firefighters surged by 65% over the past decade, reports a newspaper analysis published Sunday.

The overtime has pushed annual wages for firefighters to nearly $5 billion, making firefighters among the best-paid workers in the California government.

In some cases, firefighters were earning sums that rival their commanders, according to state payroll records cited by the Los Angeles Times.

For instance, in the city and county fire departments in Los Angeles County, the number of firefighters earning more than $100,000 in overtime alone surged from 41 in 2011 to 1,085 last year.

Last year, overtime fueled more than 200 salaries above $300,000 compared to Eight years ago when only one fire official earned that much.

Regardless of the enormous paychecks, many experts across the state argue that it’s often cheaper to pay the overtime than to hire more firefighters, once the cost of training and benefits for new employees are taken into account. However the increased number of workers that are on government payroll raise concern about the financial strain that it puts on government and city budgets to pay them.

The overtime spending is further evidence of a statewide toll: Wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes, killed scores of residents and disrupted power supplies across large swaths of the state — and, increasingly, they are chewing through government budgets with no foreseeable end in sight.

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