July 3, 2021 - Washington - Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Friday called on President Biden to build on the momentum following his decision to raise federal firefighter pay by directing OPM to create a new wildland firefighter job classification series and pay federal firefighters a fair, competitive salary for the critical work they do.

“Your actions this week will raise the annual base salary for many entry-level Forest Service firefighters from $28,078 to $31,200. But that remains significantly lower than the $58,668 entry-level base salary for a Cal Fire firefighter. This means difficulties in hiring and retaining skilled federal firefighters will remain,” Feinstein wrote in a letter to President Biden.

Feinstein continued: “I ask that you direct the Office of Personnel Management to create and implement a new classification for a wildland firefighter job series that remedies the drastic pay disparity between federal and state firefighters. Furthermore, I ask that you direct OPM to consider the pay gap, the critical nature of the job, the job market and other factors in determining the most appropriate salary level for federal firefighters.”

Full text of the letter follows and is available here:

July 2, 2021

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you for recognizing the need to increase the pay of federal wildland firefighters and for taking the first step in doing so. Your approval this week to increase federal wildland firefighters’ minimum salary to $15 an hour, to provide retention incentives, and to offer bonuses for seasonal hires are important steps in the near term. I believe they serve as a foundation for the larger task now at hand: implementing long-term reforms to eliminate the disparity in pay between federal and state wildland firefighters.

Your actions this week will raise the annual base salary for many entry-level Forest Service firefighters from $28,078 to $31,200. But that remains significantly lower than the $58,668 entry-level base salary for a Cal Fire firefighter. This means difficulties in hiring and retaining skilled federal firefighters will remain. Last August, at the height of a historic fire year, the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Region had 600 unfilled firefighting positions. They also struggled to reach their overall goal of hiring 5,000 total firefighters, citing low pay as the root cause. By contrast, Cal Fire hired a peak of nearly 8,000 firefighters last year and expects to hire even more this year.

As you noted in your press conference this week, we must work together and fast to confront the pressing threats posed by climate change, including the increasingly frequent and deadly risk of wildfire. Last year in California, 4.3 million acres burned, killing 33 people and destroying more than 5,500 homes. This year could be even worse. In fact, right now, there are three major fires in California burning over 38,000 acres on federal land near Mt. Shasta. The federal government manages 58 percent of forest land in California and 70 percent of the land burned by wildfire nationwide last year, so it has a greater responsibility when it comes to wildfire.

We must do more to provide federal agencies with the resources they need to battle increasingly destructive wildfires, and that includes paying federal firefighters a fair and competitive salary. I ask that you direct the Office of Personnel Management to create and implement a new classification for a wildland firefighter job series that remedies the drastic pay disparity between federal and state firefighters. Furthermore, I ask that you direct OPM to consider the pay gap, the critical nature of the job, the job market and other factors in determining the most appropriate salary level for federal firefighters.

I very much appreciate your attention to this matter and I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
Source: Senator Dianne Feinstein