NEW ORLEANS — We often call firefighters heroes, but according to the New Orleans Firefighters Association, a hero’s pay can be criminally low.
The New Orleans City council will vote on an ordinance that seeks to raise the minimum wage for city contract workers from $13.25 an hour to $15 an hour.
Early indications show the council will pass the measure, but there are now growing calls to give other city workers a raise. Among that group are firefighters who say they can barely get by on their pay now.
“The average firefighter makes around $13 to $14 dollars an hour, that’s on average. We have a 26-year firefighter that makes $15.50 an hour after 26 years on the job,” said Mischler, the president of the New Orleans Firefighters Association.
Mischler and the firefighters he represents fully support the City Council raising the minimum wage for contracted workers to $15 an hour, but they’re also asking, what about us? What about the full-time city employees?
“Firefighters will keep showing up for work. They’ll keep doing their job because they love the city. They love their brothers and sisters in the department, and the job is a calling, but we have to raise our families, we have to put them through school, we have to live,” Mischler said.
We’ve heard a lot about living wages during the pandemic. We’ve seen essential workers demanding pay to make ends meet. Erika Zucker said the bulk of the jobs in New Orleans don’t let them meet that threshold. She said $15 per hour doesn’t provide much financial latitude.
“It’s still paycheck-to-paycheck living. It just means that from paycheck to paycheck, you’re not falling behind,” Zucker said.
Zucker is with the Workplace Justice Project at the Loyola Law Clinic. She said the City Council’s living wage ordinance is monumental because it shows lobbying by workers is effective and city government is willing to hear them out. That said, the $15 per hour rate would take effect in 2023. Zucker said workers with children need help now.
“$15 an hour is not getting workers out of poverty. It’s $30,000 a year for a full-time job, but it’s getting them closer to being able to make it,” Zucker said.
In her estimation, $18 an hour would give workers a better shot. She hopes private entities and businesses will consider what the City Council will take up on Thursday. It’s unclear how many contract employees could be affected by the living wage ordinance.
For a point of comparison, a city hall spokesperson recently told The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate that of the roughly 4,000 city employees, about 400 workers make less than $15 an hour.
“We’re saying our public money should not be used in a way that keeps workers in poverty,” Zucker said.
Aaron Mischler said starting pay for a firefighter is $11.60 an hour.
It’s safe to say many of us aren’t willing or able to take on their dangerous and demanding line of work. Whether you would be willing or able to be paid as they are is a more timely question they’ll soon be asking City Hall.