HIGH POINT, N.C. — Firefighters in High Point want more money - and they've asked the city just that.
This comes after the proposed budget for the city came out recently.
If you remember, the city of Greensboro released its proposed budget giving every city employee a 4% pay increase.
Now, High Point firefighters are asking for the same.
The High Point Professional Firefighters Association said it's crucial that the pay be competitive with other cities.
With the proposed budget, starting pay for a firefighter would go up to $47,000 in High Point. The current starting pay is just under $45,000.
In Greensboro, if the budget gets approved, starting pay would jump up from a little over $47,000 to a little under $50,000.
Hearing this has the High Point Professional Firefighters Association fired up.
We want to compare the two fire departments - for some perspective.
The population of Greensboro is 300,000, and the city receives 40,000 calls a year, with 611 firefighters.
High Point has a population of around 115,000, responding to 17,000 calls a year with 234 firefighters on staff.
The firefighters association released a statement saying:
The High Point Professional Fire Fighters Association is committed to the safety of our citizens and the fair and equitable treatment of all High Point Fire Department employees. We believe the current proposed budget has fallen short on staying competitive with pay and benefits. We believe that competitive pay will increase our marketability with perspective employees and provide a talented, diverse and professional public safety workforce. The continued slow investment in our current workforce has led to the loss of talented and experienced employees to other Fire Departments and professions. We encourage the City of High Point to immediately take steps within the budget to prevent further loss of personnel to other Departments. We believe competitive salary and benefits packages attract and retain employees committed to the safety of the citizens we serve.
High Point mayor, Cyril Jefferson said the city looks at salaries every year, and if it finds they aren't competitive, adjustments are made.
"So the raise is based on a pay study, and the consultant comes in to do that work, looks at what the compensation was from the year before. So what that means is that other cities are increasing right now. That data is not included in the study, but we asked our city manager and her team, and they do a great job of staying current with their looking back, doing the research to ensure that our compensation is, in fact, competitive," said Mayor Jefferson.
The firefighters association wants the city to delay adopting the budget until it includes funds to address firefighter compensation and pay compression.
High Point City Council is set to vote on the proposed budget Monday night.