Labor shortage compounds federal firefighters' staffing woes

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Firefighter groups are applauding the Biden administration's steps to raise pay but warn that the temporary wage hikes won't be enough to combat staffing problems, as federal agencies compete with local fire departments and big box stores in a tight labor market.

“It’s an effort and an attempt to try to keep people at their jobs,” Jonathon Golden, a former federal firefighter from Park City, Utah, said of the move to raise federal firefighter pay. “But it still falls woefully short of the pay in municipal departments and other state agencies.”

Wildfire season is raging throughout the western U.S. and fierce competition for workers is exacerbating challenges facing the land management agencies that employ firefighters. For years, firefighters and their advocates have decried stagnant pay and increased costs of living, arguing both are making recruitment difficult and attrition inevitable.

The Biden administration announced Tuesday that infrastructure bill funds would go to backpay and giving all federal firefighters a raise for two years — either a 50% bump from their base salary or $20,000, whichever is less.

The move follows an executive order President Joe Biden signed last year to raise federal firefighter minimum wage to $15 an hour. And it implements provisions of last year's infrastructure bill designed to help recruit and retain firefighters, including $600 million in one-time funding to raise pay.

Biden said funding for long-term pay raises remained a priority as climate change makes the U.S. West hotter, drier and more prone to wildfires.

“I will do everything in my power, including working with Congress to secure long-term funding, to make sure these heroes keep earning the paychecks — and dignity — they deserve,” he said in a...