President Joe Biden claimed his administration is working to raise the minimum wage of wildland firefighters to $29 an hour at a press conference Tuesday morning.
“What I’d like to do is…raise the pay of $29 an hour. I’d like to make that permanent for these firefighters,” Biden said at an Oval Office press conference on the ongoing wildfire response. “I look forward to this briefing from key members of my administration, who’ve been working like hell on this, and two frontline governors.”
Biden did not share details on how he’d raise the wage, and ended the press conference right after the statement.
The raise would be significant for the nation’s wildland firefighting force, the members of which usually hired at GS-3/4 with an average base hourly wage at $15.47 an hour.
A wildland firefighter pay raise, albeit not as substantial as Biden’s proposal, has recently neared reality after being rucked inside this year’s Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The bill, which passed the House and was placed on the Senate’s calendar on Sept. 12, would boost wildland firefighter pay from 1.5% to 42%, with higher percentage increases going to workers lower on the pay scale, according to Boise State Public Radio.
Despite the lack of details, Biden’s statement stands in stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s recent threat. If re-elected president, Trump said he’d cut all federal wildfire aid from California if Gov. Gavin Newsom did not agree with his policies.
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Watch Biden’s press conference here (he mentions the pay increase at ~1:08):