It’s enough to make you sick!
New York City emergency medical technicians and paramedics will be paid less than restaurant delivery-app workers starting in 2025, according to the union representing the 4,000 ambulance workers.
The city’s more than 60,000 deliverers working for apps such as UberEats, GrubHub and DoorDash are set to earn $19.96 an hour by 2025, Mayor Adams announced earlier this month. They currently earn $7.09 an hour on average.
The legislation, passed by the City Council in 2021, will go into effect next month — with the delivery workers getting an immediate bump to at least $17.96 an hour.
By comparison, the base pay for the Big Apple’s critical first responders is $18.94 per hour, said Oren Barzilay, head of Local 2507 representing ambulance EMTS and paramedics.
“The pay we get is insulting. We are the Big Apple’s street doctors. We bring the hospital to your home,” Barzilay told The Post. “We are life savers. We resuscitate people. We literally bring people back to life.”
Currently, salaries for the ambulance workers range from $39,386 to $59,534 after five years.
The contract for the ambulance workers expired last July while watching City Hall reach agreements providing multiyear, double-digit salary hikes and bonuses to 75% of the city workforce including teachers, police and firefighters, sanitation and other municipal employees.
When the EMS union endorsed Adams in the Democratic primary for mayor in June of 2021, he promised to address the pay disparity for the essential workers.
“Our EMTs, paramedics, and fire inspectors deserve our City’s thanks and respect, but for years they have been shamefully denied basic pay equity. As mayor, I will not stand for discrimination against workers, especially not the women and men who have put their lives at risk to save ours day after day,” Adams said when accepting the endorsement.
Part of the hold-up is a dispute between the city and the EMS officers union over a new Sergeant-EMS job title in the current contract, according to the Chief Leader.
“It’s hard to move forward to get a new contract when you haven’t resolved issues from the last contract yet,” Vincent Variale, the head of the EMS officers union, told the labor newspaper.
City Hall, via a statement from the FDNY, said it’s ready to negotiate a wage package with EMS ambulance workers.
“We were pleased we were able to reach an agreement with the union in the last round of bargaining that addressed their needs and was overwhelmingly ratified,” said FDNY rep Amanda Farinacci.