Need more information. Like all things Reddit, there was clearly a bias and it isn't really worth trusting anything you see there. The attached pay scale clearly shows much higher levels of pay than what the Leftists of Reddit want you to believe. You need a specific job posting to make a fair comparison.
- DEN.pdf
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Most people can stop reading here.
The rest was written before I just searched for the locality pay scale.
It appears that the pay table includes a 4.1 % locality adjustment, but they cut off the location, so it might not be for Denver, CO, and there is no mention of who that scale is for. Oh, it was also edited to only include the lower steps, which is dishonest and feeds that bias. GS 5 step 9 can earn more than a GS 7 step 1, and you won't take a pay cut if promoted. Denver is hardly cheap, so that manager position isn't exactly high pay. It also requires 2 years of experience. No mention of a degree, though. However, you deal with people, and fast food is usually considered unpleasant work, or at least fairly stressful work where you deal with people, and jobs that deal with people are typically not that great. Something tells me most physically fit men who can work in fire prefer to do that and have a lower base pay, instead of work in the service industry dealing with what one does, as a Fast food manager. When was the last time you saw a manager in fast food who does pushups and pull ups and can hike 5 to 10 miles with a 45 lbs pack?
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/753815600 this rural area squad boss posting shows a $20,0000 bonus, which can go away soon, it seems, but it isn't nothing. I guess fire jobs are infrastructure, now? It is a 5/6/7 posting, however. I was told years ago that for some reason the even number levels are not often used, and you don't want to fall into those. 5/7/9 good, 4/6/8 levels bad.
On the other hand, when I applied to some fire jobs 2 decades ago, I encountered guys with masters degrees working fire jobs on engine crews. You don't need a masters degree to do that, but they are stable jobs with benefits. So, you have a glut of educated people doing jobs that needs little education, and that suppresses wages. There are too many degree mills that pump out bachelors in things like Forestry. The University System only cares about getting customers in the door, they don't care what happens after you buy that degree.
We also can't see anything here beyond a pay scale, which is not the job advertisement. Typically, a Superintendent position will be advertised as a 5/7/9, or maybe a 7/9/11, if not higher. Those are the promotional grades, and your entry grade can vary based on experience, and so forth, but if you have a decade or more of fire experience, you're not making 45k a year.
Fire jobs are unusual in that they have hazard pay. Yes, the advertised salary for a job like a hot shot is still full time, whereas many are seasonal 1039 jobs that should not exceed those number of hours in a season. Both positions have hazard pay that is either 1.5 or 2x (?) the base pay when on an incident, and you often get it the entire time you're out.
https://www.grassrootswildlandfirefight ... pay-reform however that says 25%. Meals may also be covered, especially on large incidents. In school, one hot shot told me guys could make almost a year's salary working that 6 months, due to the hazard pay. This was 2002 to 2003, though.