City of San Jose / Fire / Fire Fighter
Job-title file
Carry out the duties of this position in support of the agency's public mission.
232 employees hold this title in Fire. Median total compensation for the role is $230,171, below the department median of $270,889.
What the records show
How total compensation varies among the 232 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 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area, the median wage for Firefighters — about 1,330 people — is $152,100. Fire pays a median base salary of $137,603 for this role, 10% below that figure — about the 44th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
The bar is the range of annual wages for Firefighters across every employer in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Fire’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’s median base salary is 132% 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 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 229 of 232 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 is $230,171, 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 8 jurisdictions. In City of San Jose, the median of $230,171 ranks #2 of 8. See Fire Fighter across all of City of San Jose →
Median total compensation for comparable Fire Fighterroles 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 Fighter/Fire
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Thomas Linebarger works as a Fire Fighter for Fire. Thomas earned $126,448 in 2025.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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Ivan Hernandez holds the role of Fire Fighter at Fire. In 2025, their total compensation was $124,999.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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Scott Buskey works as a Fire Fighter for Fire. Scott earned $123,795 in 2025.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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At Fire, Alec Lona serves as a Fire Fighter. Their 2025 pay totaled $123,155.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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Brian Duffy works as a Fire Fighter for Fire. Brian earned $121,807 in 2025.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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Nicholas Klinkhammer holds the role of Fire Fighter at Fire. In 2025, their total compensation was $121,277.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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Andrew Imobersteg is a Fire Fighter at Fire. 2025 total compensation came to $120,024.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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Jeffrey Richards is a Fire Fighter at Fire. 2025 total compensation came to $119,212.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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Antonio Arellano holds the role of Fire Fighter at Fire. In 2025, their total compensation was $119,172.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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At Fire, Jackson Dudek serves as a Fire Fighter. Their 2025 pay totaled $119,154.
Fire Fighter/Fire
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Spencer Harnett holds the role of Fire Fighter at Fire. In 2025, their total compensation was $119,127.
Fire Fighter/Fire
Source-specific fields
Matthew Goodearl works as a Fire Fighter for Fire. Matthew earned $116,556 in 2025.