Published Saturday, June 25, 2022, 1715 hours PT
UNITED STATES — Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wildland firefighters will soon receive a pay increase soon, thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration announcement of the newly approved Bipartisan Infrastructure Law recently enacted.
Investing in our wildland firefighting workforce is a matter of national security as there are more than 460 million acres of land at moderate to very high risk from wildfire this year, and the number of acres burned in 2021 is the highest on record. – White House statement.
The new law will be implemented over the coming summer months, the Administration has a new set of temporary pay increases that will put retroactive pay (from October 1, 2021) into wildland firefighter pockets increasing their bi-weekly pay, up to the lesser of $20,000 or 50% of their annual base salary through September 2023.
The Federal agencies will begin processing these payments in the coming weeks, with additional payments to occur throughout July and into August.
Because the pay increase under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is temporary, the Biden-Harris Administration supports a new firefighter pay structure that is both sufficiently competitive and equitable to address longstanding nationwide recruitment and retention challenges and consider the long work shifts, pressures, and risks associated with these jobs.
To learn more about this law, visit the link below.
More updates will follow as more information is received, but this is good news, to begin with for our federal wildland firefighters.
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