By Stacey Pheffer Amato
I want to say this very loudly: Emergency medical service workers save lives. They work in some of the most difficult and stressful conditions and when we have an emergency they come to help us. We call them “street doctors” for a reason. Yet in an incredibly disappointing move, they aren’t paid the hero salary they deserve. In fact, they’re not even paid a living wage. Instead, it has been almost 4 years since they’ve had a contract and years without a salary increase. One might think this would be a top priority for the mayor or the City Council as this is a service that means life or death. However, last year the City Council used its time to vote on a new starting salary for Uber and Lyft drivers at $21 an hour; and the City Council voted to extend that salary increase to food delivery workers.
The City Council and mayoral administration’s failure to address this situation has caused us to be in a serious staffing crisis. With some of the lowest numbers of first responders in our city’s history, along with recruitment levels at an all time low, no wonder the average response time for life-threatening medical emergencies is 12.35 minutes in 2025, alarmingly up from 11.87 minutes in 2024. I call out the council and this mayor for this problem. Their actions, or lack of, have made it so you can be an Uber or food delivery worker and earn $21 an hour, yet our EMS workers earn $18 an hour. At the very least, can’t the council take care of both? Is this not a priority? I think it is!
This year, with the partnership of Local 2507 and Local 3621, the unions that represent the men and women who serve as NYC EMS workers, I introduced and passed several bills to give them protections, parity, and respect. This includes A.7356 which sets a minimum staffing requirement so our first responders aren’t alone when responding to a call. And through A.5771, we amended their pension plan so NYC EMS workers can retire after 25 years of heroic service—just like some of their other colleagues in similar fields.
I bring this up because actions speak louder than words. For nearly four years the mayor has repeatedly failed to ratify or agree to a new contract. In addition, the council has refused to take up any legislation to give them a pay raise. How is that acceptable? There must be something wrong with this system if the chairs of the committees on Fire and Emergency Management, or Health, or Public Safety can’t even get any legislation enacted to increase their salaries. I’m disappointed and I’m sure you are too.
Our first responders can’t live on a starting salary of $39,386. The question seems to be that if the council or this administration can’t do what’s needed, let alone right, does the State have to step in once again? After all, it was through my legislation on the State level that got our police officers, detectives, sergeants and lieutenants within the NYPD a pay increase (A.5202 from 2024, and A.5376 from 2025) because the City wouldn’t do anything to address their staffing crisis. If this continues to be ignored then this will have to be addressed when I return to Albany.
Pheffer Amato is assemblywoman for the 23rd Assembly District.
