Mobile Police, Fire-Rescue starting pay to increase by thousands

MOBILE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — Mobile police officers and firefighters will see a hefty raise after the city council passed the 2025 fiscal budget.

City officials hope this not only brings more employees to the force but also resolves some pending litigation.

The starting pay for Mobile police officers and firefighters bumped up to $51,402 after the city council passed the 2025 fiscal budget. The previous salary was $43,644, so that’s an increase of $7,758.

Chief of Staff James Barber explained that this is a way to make pay more competitive between other agencies as well as cutting back on incentives.

“We took all the money that we’re spending on incentives, put it all into the pay plan, and then added about $3 million to make it more competitive within our area of operation or this regional area,” Barber said. “And so that’s what you see coming out now in the new fiscal year, is that we’re going to fund it.”

Barber explained that in 2021, the city saw 111 police officers leave the department, which was a significant drop.

To help retain employees, the city created incentives for the police department, but then Mobile Fire Rescue firefighters accused the city of paying unequally with those incentives leading to a lawsuit being filed.

Chief Barber said this budget would solve that legal matter since the use of incentives was the basic claim of the lawsuit.

“We really came to the conclusion that if we had a competitive pay plan, the incentives weren’t necessary,” Barber explained. “And that’s what you saw the mayor give the green light to put the effort into the plan itself and once and for all, finally fix the public safety pay plan to make it competitive. The big thing is, is making sure that we maintain that competitiveness going forward.”

We reached out to Mobile Fire-Rescue captain and Union President Captain Jimmy Connick and he tells WKRG News 5 he hopes the salary changes will satisfy the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, a hearing on the suit is set for Oct. 4, and the salaries are set to take effect on Saturday.

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