San Diego Closing Loophole to Boost EMT, Paramedic Pay

Nov. 16--SAN DIEGO -- Pay might soon increase sharply for San Diego's paramedics and emergency medical technicians as momentum continues to build for closing a loophole exempting them from the city's living wage ordinance.

City officials say higher emergency worker pay will mean better care for patients because it will attract superior quality workers and prompt them to volunteer for fewer overtime shifts, which can make them groggy and less effective.

A City Council committee voted last month to amend the living wage ordinance so that it would start applying to emergency workers, and the city attorney's office is analyzing whether the change could apply immediately to San Diego's five-year contract with American Medical Response that runs through 2020.

That analysis may prove unnecessary, because an official with AMR, which took over the city's ambulance service two weeks ago when it bought Rural/Metro Corporation, said Thursday that the company has already begun exploring how to comply with the city's living wage law.

"We look forward to working with the union to develop a way to get us to the living wage for San Diego and the city's ordinance," Mike Murphy, AMR's local general manager, told the council's public safety committee.

Most San Diego EMTs make $10 an hour and most paramedics make about $13.50. The city's living wage law, adopted 10 years ago, requires city contractors to pay their employees $14.43 an hour.

The law exempts contractors providing professional services, such as lawyers, engineers and medical workers, because those employees typically make far more than the ordinance's minimum pay rate, which gets increased annually based on inflation.

Council President Sherri Lightner says exempting EMTs violates the spirit of the law, which affects about 2,300 workers.

"It is of concern to me that we pay janitors and security officers a living wage but not EMTs," she said when the council approved the new ambulance contract last summer. "I don't believe that was the intent of the exemption in the living wage ordinance."

The council's economic development committee agreed last month, forwarding a recommendation to the full council to close the loophole.

"To me it's inconceivable that our first responders, who quite often save lives, are not paid a living wage," said Councilwoman Myrtle Cole, chair of that committee.

Deputy City Attorney Laura Easton told committee members that a memo would be completed this fall analyzing whether the change could take place immediately or whether it would be delayed until the city's ambulance contract expires in 2020.

The city can opt out of that contract as soon as June 2018, but would have to pay American Medical Response a $4 million penalty.

Marti Emerald, chair of the public safety committee, said Thursday she was pleased to hear that AMR is ready to comply with the living wage law without being forced.

"You kind of see the writing on the wall," she said to AMR officials.

Emerald said she's optimistic higher pay will lead to better service for San Diegans and fewer overtime shifts for EMTs and paramedics trying to make ends meet.

"I would imagine if the base pay comes up it will be easier to get people into this profession," she said.

Dr. James Dunford, the city's Emergency Medical Services director, said graduates of local EMT and paramedic academies often lack the skills and training to immediately be effective.

"We have a challenge across the country and in California these days with people applying to be paramedics," Dunford said. "They're not what they used to be."

Michael Simonsen, a regional market development director for the city's ambulance service, said last summer that comparisons can be misleading. He said overtime built into the 12-hour shifts worked by San Diego EMTs makes their annual pay already the same or higher than people paid the hourly rate required under the city's living wage law but who receive no overtime.

The city's living wage law doesn't account for overtime. It simply prescribes a minimum hourly wage.

The union representing local emergency workers, the National Association of Government Employees, praised city officials for working to close the loophole and listening to employees.

"The professionals who provide these services deserve their voices to be heard and to be taken seriously," said Philip Petit, the union's national director.

No date has been set for the council to vote on closing the loophole. A spokesman for the city attorney's office said their analysis should be complete in early December.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 @UTDavidGarrick

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