The contract covering roughly 4,300 FDNY EMTs and paramedics — who start at $39,386 a year, about $18.94 an hour — has been expired since approximately 2022. Mamdani is six months in. His FDNY Commissioner backs pay parity. The contract is still open.

The contract governing pay for roughly 4,300 FDNY emergency medical technicians and paramedics has been expired since approximately 2022 — through one full mayoral term and now into a second. Mayor Zohran Mamdani is six months in, and the question on the EMS floor is what he plans to do about it.

A starting EMT earns $39,386 a year — about $18.94 an hour. The New York Times put that figure on its metro page on July 15, asking whether Mamdani would be the mayor to move it. Tops out at $76,472 for EMTs, $92,635 for paramedics, while firefighters at the same department start above $56,000 and carry richer benefit packages.

When Mamdani took office in January, he named Lillian Bonsignore — a former FDNY EMS chief — as fire commissioner. Union leaders read it as a signal. But in February, Bonsignore told the Daily News she has "no say over contract negotiations between City Hall and the unions representing city workers." She called EMS workers "also heroes." The contract, she made clear, sits with the mayor's labor shop, not with her.

In March, EMS unions released a survey showing one in three of their members plan to leave their jobs, pointing to the pay gap with other uniformed services as the reason. Response times have tracked with staffing pressure: after pandemic-era delays, they remain a recurring complaint.

Contract negotiations for expired city labor agreements move through the Office of Collective Bargaining. As of mid-July, no ratified EMS deal has been announced. The administration has not set a public timeline. Four years is a long time for a 911 workforce to work without a signed contract.