Palm Beach Gardens raises firefighter salaries, shortens work weeks to attract new recruits

PALM BEACH GARDENS — The city’s fire department is preparing to hire 33 new firefighters, reduce employee working hours and give raises to its personnel.

The City Council in September approved a new three-year contract for firefighters and paramedics, which will cost more than $5.8 million over the length of the contract. Starting Oct. 1, sworn employees began to receive a 24% salary increase given in increments until the contract expires. They received raises as part of their previous contract, but those were not as high as this year’s, according to Fire Chief Keith Bryer.

In the third year of the new contract, firefighters will follow a new work cycle of 24 hours on duty and then 72 hours off, which is six fewer working hours each week.

North county tax rates: Public safety spending rising in region as cities seek to keep police, firefighters

Bryer said the higher pay and shorter workweeks will help the department recruit more new employees, which has been a challenge amid a nationwide shortage of firefighter recruits.

“It’s caused fire departments to have to become more competitive,” Bryer said. “We want the best of the best, so we have to attract that.”

Gardens to raise firefighter salaries in increments over three-year contract

Raises will be awarded to the city's 135 fire department union-member employees in parts.

In the first and second years of the contract, they will get a 7% increase in October and then a 3% increase in April. In the third year, they will get a 4% increase in October.

The first raise will reach firefighters’ paychecks in the first full pay period after Oct. 1. Minimum salaries would jump to $62,944 from $56,542 for firefighters and to $85,861 from $77,128 for captains.

The city’s nine fire inspectors and one community risk educator — who make up the community risk reduction division — will receive 6% raises each year over the three years of the contract.

Shorter fire-rescue workweeks set to begin in October 2026

Firefighters and paramedics now work a schedule that calls for 24 hours on duty and then 48 hours off. In the third year of the agreement, working hours will change to 24 hours on and then 72 hours off.

This reduction means the firefighters will go from working 48 hours each week to 42-hour work weeks.

The change will make the fire department the first in northern Palm Beach County to switch to these shorter hours, which are becoming a trend in the county, according to Bryer. Boca Raton Fire Rescue switched to the schedule decades ago and Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Highland Beach are following in their footsteps, he said.

The shorter work weeks should benefit the firefighters’ health and wellness, Bryer said. He said he wants them to get better sleep, which promotes good mental health. The new contract also includes a yearly mental health check with a health care professional.

“Twenty years ago, nobody talked about mental health in the fire service,” Bryer said. “That culture has changed. If the captain knows there was a bad call, he will sit everybody down and say, ‘Let’s talk about it.’ “

With the new schedule, 15 new firefighters would need to be hired. The department needs to hire 18 more as it plans to staff three people per rescue unit, more than the two-person unit minimum in place now.

How Juno Beach is growing: 40 million-dollar townhomes coming to town's main intersection

Gardens to open sixth fire station in April at Avenir

The city is also adding a sixth fire station. Crews are building it in Avenir , a community of more than 4,000 homes and several businesses rising on the western edge of the city. The station is set to open in April, said Bryer, who noted that the 21 firefighters who will work from it have already been hired.

The new contract was developed over four days of collective bargaining sessions. This is the fastest contract negotiation that Dave Terrana, president of the department’s union, Local 5470 of the International Association of Firefighters, has seen in his 21 years with the department.

“All of the firefighters are absolutely over the moon,” Terrana said. “We want people to get out of EMT, fire and paramedic school and say, ‘I want to go to Gardens.’ I truly believe we achieved that.”

Council member Carl Woods said during the Sept. 19 council meeting that the city is making “aggressive changes” to support police and fire, noting the city's approval of police officer raises in May.

“Without you guys driving the trucks and saving lives, people just die,” Woods said. “Thank you for a good job. Keep doing it.”

Want more Palm Beach Gardens news?

Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com . Support local journalism: Subscribe today .

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach Gardens raises firefighter salaries, shortens work weeks to attract new recruits