Compared with the local labor market
Firefighter pay vs. the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY area
Across all employers in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY area, the median wage for Firefighters — about 820 people — is $74,470. Fire Ladder 5 pays a median base salary of $61,291 for this role, 18% below that figure — about the 28th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Fire Ladder 5 sits in the local pay range
$48,120
$59,300
$74,470
$80,920
$80,920
Fire Ladder 5 median · $61,291
The bar is the range of annual wages for Firefighters across every employer in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Fire Ladder 5’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Firefighters — about 345,990 people — is $59,280. Fire Ladder 5’s median base salary is 3% above that national figure, about the 53rd percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$34,910
$44,490
$59,280
$77,250
$101,040
Fire Ladder 5 median · $61,291
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 Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 15 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 5 is $86,457, 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.