Federal wildland firefighters secured a permanent pay raise Friday after years of waiting for Congress to answer their plea.
Included in the spending bill approved by Congress is a new pay scale and incident-response premium pay, which would apply to employees assigned to active fires.
The bill next goes to President Donald Trump to sign into law.
The new pay scale means firefighters will keep their temporary pay raises of either $20,000 annually or 50% of their base salary, enacted in 2021 under the Biden administration.
Firefighters will not be eligible for premium pay for fires contained within 36 hours. The pay will be calculated at 450% of their hourly base rate for each day a firefighter is on an active fire and will be limited to a total of $9,000 in any calendar year.
This marks the first time federal firefighters will get paid for the hours they rest and sleep while away from home, which is standard practice in most municipal and state departments.
“For years, our union and NFFE members have fought tirelessly for a lasting pay solution for federal wildland firefighters,” Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees union, said in a statement.
“Now, that fight is paying off,” he added. “A permanent pay fix means we can shift our focus to addressing other critical issues — recruitment and retention, housing, mental health benefits, rest and recuperation, and the overall well-being of our nation’s wildland firefighting workforce.”
The pay bump comes as federal firefighters recover from cuts to their ranks after the Agriculture Department, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, reinstated more than 5,000 probationary employees who had been fired in February. At least 2,000 of them had primary or secondary firefighting duties, according to the NFFE.
The order to reinstate the employees earlier this week originated from a federal civil service board ruling, which found the mass firings may have been unlawful. The ruling directed the USDA to restore employees to their jobs for at least 45 days with back pay.
On Thursday, a federal judge in California ordered more departments – including Veterans Affairs, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury – to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who were terminated in February.
But what comes next is unclear. The Trump administration set a March 13 deadline for all federal agencies to submit reorganization plans to initiate “large-scale reductions in force.”
Those cuts could include federal firefighters.
“We didn’t expect it to be this way,” said Steve Gutierrez, an NFFE union representative. “I’d love to celebrate, but I don’t want to do it if people are still losing their jobs and and these guys might get cut loose later on.”
The uncertainty has already taken its toll on the Forest Service. Last month, Chief Randy Moore, the first Black man to take the helm, resigned after more than 45 years with the Forest Service. In his retirement note to staff, Moore said he felt the full burden of current political tides.
“If you are feeling uncertainty, frustration, or loss, you are not alone,” he wrote. “These are real and valid emotions that I am feeling, too.”
The resignations continued this week when top foresters who oversaw forests in California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota stepped down effective March 28, according to the NFFE.
The forest supervisor of the Angeles National Forest, which was recently battered by the deadly Eaton Fire, also resigned.
