2005 JEMS Salary Survey

What You Earn, Where You Work & What It All Means

• David M. Williams, MS
• October 2005 JEMS Volume 30 Number 10
• 2005 Oct 1

The year was 1982. The Los Angeles Dodgers had just become the first National League team in World Series history to come from two games down to win the series, beating the New York Yankees in four straight games; Michael Jackson released "Thriller," which would become the biggest selling album in history, and the movie "E.T." was all the rage.

In the world of EMS, it was only a year since President Reagan's Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act eliminated funding under the federal EMS Systems Act, which had been responsible for a majority of the early EMS system development. The American Ambulance Association sponsored the Needs Assessment Workshop in Kansas City, Mo., that focused on analyzing the status of the EMS industry; its findings would be the early impetus for the creation of the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS). And one of the first university-based ambulance corps—Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service (GERMS)—officially began operations. In addition, many of today's entry-level EMS professionals were newborns at that time.

January 1982 also marked the publication of the first Almanac of Emergency Medical Services in JEMS. Included were several surveys of subscribers that would evolve to become the annual JEMS 200-City Survey and the JEMS Salary & Workplace Survey. Twenty-three years later, these surveys have become benchmarks for operational and workforce practices in America.

The salary and workplace survey has come a long way from its humble beginnings. Today's survey has 50% more respondents than in 1982 and has grown from surveying just six frontline positions to include 15 positions, from the emergency medical dispatcher taking the call all the way up to the executive director steering the ship. In addition, the survey now goes beyond just salary considerations and helps each of us look into workplace practices nationwide. 

If you've ever wondered about the salary and workplace practices of your colleagues next door or across the United States, look no further. The answers are right here.

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