In the US, a firefighter's salary can be determined by media starting salary and experienced salary. According to recent posts from firefightersalaryguide.org, a firefighter who has been in the service industry for a year or less can earn a median rate between $29,000 to $45,000. On the other hand, firefighters who have been in the service for five to nine years can earn between $35,000 to $56,000 experience salaries per year. 



Overtime pay is a considerable addition a firefighter gets due to the extra hours a firefighter needs to work sometimes. After all, a firefighting service should be available 24 hours a day thus there must be someone ready to stand on call that can respond to an emergency immediately. An overtime pay will vary depending on the state and city a firefighter is assigned. In most cases, a new firefighter could an average total of $3,000 every year of overtime and holiday pay alone. There are a lot of studies conducted and that have concluded that firefighters are paid high overtime pays. A lot of factors contribute to this truth and one of them is the shortage of available firefighters. The shortage of firefighters requires one to work extra hours which causes the rates in overtime pay to rise. In fact, some fire stations in Los Angeles pay higher overtime pay than their regular annual salaries due to their shortage in staff.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a firefighter designated in cities like New Jersey, California, Washington, New York and Nevada earn the highest in terms of firefighter salary. Cities with the highest paid firefighter salary are located in the West Coast especially in California due to its dense urban population which in turn subjects to more fires, arson cases and other risks. This is makes firefighting in demand and more profitable.