City of Boston / Boston Fire Department / Fire Lieutenant
Job-title file
Enforce laws and maintain public safety — patrol, respond to incidents, investigate crimes, and make arrests.
138 employees hold this title in Boston Fire Department. Median total compensation for the role is $205,155, above the department median of $174,516.
What the records show
How total compensation varies among the 138 people in this role. Even for one job title, pay differs with seniority, step, overtime, and tenure. Each bar is a pay range; the far-right bar collects the highest earners.
Compared with the local labor market
Across all employers in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area, the median wage for First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers — about 2,460 people — is $96,740. Boston Fire Department pays a median base salary of $165,632 for this role, 71% above that figure — above the 90th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
The bar is the range of annual wages for First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers across every employer in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Boston Fire Department’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers — about 99,140 people — is $93,530. Boston Fire Department’s median base salary is 77% above that national figure, above the 90th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 138 of 141 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at Boston Fire Department is $205,266, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare jurisdictions
This role is reported in 10 jurisdictions. In City of Boston, the median of $205,266 ranks #1 of 10. See Fire Lieutenant across all of City of Boston →
Median total compensation for comparable Fire Lieutenantroles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.
Record list
Page 1
Fire Lieutenant/Boston Fire Department
Source-specific fields
Michael Foley is a Fire Lieutenant at Boston Fire Department. 2024 total compensation came to $171,924.
Fire Lieutenant/Boston Fire Department
Source-specific fields
James Shone works as a Fire Lieutenant for Boston Fire Department. James earned $169,377 in 2024.