Crime & Safety
Study Gives Washington High Marks For Firefighter Pay
A new report ranked the 50 states based on firefighter salary. See where Washington finished.
Frontpoint, a home security website, recently released a study comparing career firefighters’ salaries across the nation.
The average annual career firefighter salary in the United States for 2018 was $53,240.
The report focused exclusively on career firefighters, which is a group that accounts for only 33 percent of active firefighters.
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Washington's career firefighters rank third overall in average annual salary, and second overall in adjusted annual salary.
Annual Average Salary: $73,850
Annual Average Adjusted Salary: $69,408
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The rankings were based on an analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and then filtered through information from the 2017 Bureau of Economic Analysis to find the adjusted salary for each individual state.
California took home the award for highest annual average salary for firefighters at $81,580, with Mississippi coming in very last at $30,370.
The Golden State also has the most employed firefighters in the United States at 32,910.
Here are the 10 states with the highest annual average salary for firefighters:
- California: $81,580
- New Jersey: $76,530
- Washington: $73,850
- New York: $73,710
- Nevada: $66,830
- Oregon: $66,330
- Connecticut: $63,630
- Hawaii: $62,670
- Maryland: $61,780
- Colorado: $61,160
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