Work Schedule/Pay

 Work Schedule

Below is the pay period calendar for the fiscal year of 2026. Here you can see that we are paid bi-weekly. As a seasonal employee you can expect to be working as early as April all the way through November with possible extensions into December due to fire severity. Our training period begins in April through May where you will get all the training in class and in the field to become a successful and effective crewmember and firefighter with a focus on aviation. Once the helicopter arrives, typically in early June, the crew will split into two mods. The two mods will split the work week working four 10 hour day shifts, either Sunday to Wednesday, (Thurs Fri Sat off) or Wednesday to Saturday (Sun Mon Tues off). Wednesdays will have the whole crew on. This allows us to have 7 days of available coverage with the helicopter.




Pay

Here you can see the General Wildland Firefighter (GW) federal pay scales. There have been positive recent updates with a new pay scale being released in March of 2025 and the Office of Personnel creating a new firefighter classification. Although there have been major changes with the current administration, there is no evidence of a lack of support from congress towards the wildland fire programs and pay. Highlighted in yellow are the current starting hourly rates for GS3 -5 Positions.




This new pay raise supersedes the previous retention pay bay bonus ($20,000 or 50% of salary) annually. This is a base rate raise, which positively affects our overtime and hazard pay, it also counts towards retirement, so overall this is a vast improvement on our previous pay structure. This pay scale does not include the daily premium pay while on large fire support or per diem while off forest not assigned to an incident.

Hazard Pay = 25% of base rate
Per diem = Variable based on location and meals provided.

GS5 (Step 1) Base Rate = $25.37
GS5 Rate when on incident (Base Rate + Hazard Pay) = $31.71
GS5 Overtime Rate = $38.06
GS5 Rate when on Overtime and incident (Overtime Rate + Hazard Pay) = $44.40


Additional Info

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