New York City EMS workers press pay case as ambulance response times rise

New York City EMS workers said on 10 October 2026 that low pay was pushing colleagues out of the service, as city figures showed longer ambulance response times. The dispute affects the crews who answer medical emergencies across the five boroughs and the people waiting for their help. The mayor’s labor-relations office says contract negotiations are underway, while a union leader says formal negotiations have yet to begin.

Oren Barzilay, who recently retired as president of FDNY EMS Local 2507 after 31 years in the service, told the Guardian he earned $59,000. He said he now advises young people against joining: ‘Don’t come here.’ His account gives a personal measure of a pay dispute that predates the current administration and remains unresolved.

What FDNY figures show about ambulance response times

FDNY’s fiscal 2026 performance report recorded an average end-to-end ambulance response time of 13 minutes 9 seconds for life-threatening medical emergencies, up from 11 minutes 21 seconds in fiscal 2025. A narrower measure covering dispatch and travel rose from 8 minutes 49 seconds to 10 minutes 32 seconds. Those are different measures of a response; they should not be treated as interchangeable.

The department recorded 1,605,979 ambulance medical incidents in fiscal 2026, down from 1,615,531 the year before. Life-threatening medical emergency incidents also fell, from 620,467 to 610,771. FDNY said medical emergencies were broadly steady while average ambulance in-service hours fell 5% amid declining staffing. It also reported that 11 hospitals removed their ambulances from the 911 system during the fiscal year and that some EMTs left EMS through a promotional route into firefighting.

How EMS pay compares with firefighter salaries

An FDNY emergency medical technician starts at $39,386 a year and reaches about $59,534 after five years, according to the Guardian’s account and an earlier Vital City analysis. They reported that a firefighter can earn $105,146 at a comparable stage. These are salary-scale figures; they do not describe every worker’s pay once overtime, benefits or individual circumstances are considered.

The gap has a long history. Vital City traced it partly to different city bargaining patterns for EMS workers and firefighters. Its May 2025 account said the EMS contract had expired in 2022, and noted that EMS had been moved into the fire department in 1996. The current complaints therefore concern a longstanding pay structure as well as the immediate state of contract talks.

In May, ABC7 New York interviewed former FDNY paramedic Brian Guerra, who said he left for work in another state because he could not afford to remain in New York City. Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore told ABC7 that retention was ‘really going to be connected to the pay’ and described pay parity as important to making EMS a lasting career. At the time, Local 2507 told the station it was losing an average of two EMS workers a day. That was the union’s estimate in May, not a verified current departure rate.

What remains disputed in the contract talks

Anthony Almojera, vice-president of EMS Local 3621, told the Guardian that workers were leaving and that the union and city were communicating, but said formal negotiations had not begun. Barzilay said he did not yet regard the administration’s efforts as good-faith negotiations. Kenneth Londono, communications director for the mayor’s Office of Labor Relations, told the Guardian that negotiations were underway and that the administration was committed to bargaining in good faith toward a fair, sustainable outcome. The available account does not establish dates for bargaining sessions or resolve the difference between those descriptions.

For crews, the pay debate sits alongside decisions made under pressure. Paramedic Natasha Villaruel told the Guardian that she may have about 20 seconds to assess the urgency of a patient’s condition on arrival. She also described colleagues living in shelters or relying on food assistance, and said her own household was sustainable largely because her husband is a firefighter. Her account describes workers’ circumstances; it cannot establish how typical they are across the service.

Delays can matter acutely for patients. Neurologist Shreya Kashyap told the Guardian that delays in acute stroke care can raise the risk of permanent brain-tissue damage. That clinical concern does not quantify patient harm from the citywide change in average ambulance response time. The established picture is narrower: FDNY reports slower responses and fewer ambulance hours, while workers and officials identify retention and pay as problems. Whether bargaining produces an agreement, and whether operational changes shorten waits, remains open.