Firefighter

Across all employers in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY area, the median wage for Firefighters — about 820 people — is $74,470. Fire Ladder 14 pays a median base salary of $62,139 for this role, 17% below that figure — about the 30th percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Computed over the 16 of 17 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 Fire Ladder 14 is $94,349, 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.

Firefighter is held in 38 City of Buffalo departments. In Fire Ladder 14, the median of $94,349 ranks #9 of 38.

This role is reported in 20 jurisdictions. In City of Buffalo, the median of $80,886 ranks #10 of 20. See Firefighter across all of City of Buffalo →