The contract talks started late last year and are continuing through this spring. Negotiations eventually led the city to offer Austin-Travis County EMS medics a $0.14 raise last month. During a May 2 safety commission discussion of the labor contract process, EMS Association President Selena Xie said EMS pay is falling behind the cost of living in Austin, a situation the city's initial offer would not address.
"Even as of today, I had a medic reach out to me telling me that their rent is going up $300 [per month], and they don’t even know where they would move to, and they also don’t want to relocate their kids, so their only other option is potentially to move to another city and do EMS there. And that is heartbreaking for us," Xie said.
The negotiations come at a time when all three of the city's public safety branches continue to experience understaffing, which some commissioners also linked to the higher pay available at other comparable agencies. The EMS vacancy rate had risen past 18% as of February, and Xie said the department is short around 25% of its budgeted positions—a situation she labeled as a "crisis."
"A quarter of our staff we can’t fill, and we heard the police just talk about how they’re 11% short. And so we’re double that, and we’re higher than any other city department that I’m aware of right now," Xie said. "For the city to say that their first offer is a $0.14 raise, it’s just playing a game that is actually dangerous to the public safety of the city.”
After hearing from Xie, commissioners largely sided with the EMS association and called on Austin to up its initial offer. Members also criticized the city for skipping out on the May 2 meeting—a city law department representative was expected to join—and for what some labeled as a pattern of undervaluing medical workers even as the sector continues to see a worker shortage.
"I do consider them not coming to this discussion today a slap in the face for the work that specifically EMS has done over the last few years with this pandemic. And I believe that that $0.14 is a slap in the face to that work," Commissioner Rocky Lane said. "I would like to encourage them to still come before us and this community and explain why they are mistreating one of our largest untapped resources in this not-yet-over crisis."
Lane and Chair Rebecca Bernhardt said the EMS pay level is also a contributor to a lack of diversity within the department. According to data shared during an April briefing to the commission, Austin's EMS staff had a higher share of white employees and a lower share of Black and Hispanic employees than either the police or fire departments as of last year. And as of April, around three-fourths of EMS employees were white compared to 71% in the fire department and 65% in the police department.
Commissioners went on to vote in favor of an EMS pay equity recommendation drafted by Bernhardt that will be forwarded to City Council. The measure asks city officials to extend a higher pay offer to EMS workers, with consideration for the salaries of comparable public medical departments, the private market, and Austin police and fire staff.
“I guess I’m just urging City Council to, you know, talk to the city manager’s office—who apparently they employ—and tell them to do a better job at this. Because it’s ridiculous. From a management perspective, if you were hypothetically trying to run a government, it’s not how you would do it," Bernhardt said.
