Denton Fire Certification, Specialty and Overtime Pay, From the Agreement
Base pay is one line of the Denton paycheck. The meet-and-confer agreement adds monthly certification pay by TCFP level, education pay, seven additional certification pays with up to three at a time, specialty pays, Paramedic Pay and hourly Medic Assignment Pay, and longevity for every year of service. Overtime is built into the shift rate.
- Author
- Ready to Serve Editorial Team
- Published
- September 8, 2026
- Length
- 5 min read
- denton
- texas
- firefighter
- overtime
Denton Fire Certification, Specialty and Overtime Pay, From the Agreement
30-second answer. Base pay is one line of a Denton paycheck; the step table covers that line. The meet-and-confer agreement between the City of Denton and the Denton Fire Fighters Association, IAFF Local 1291 (fiscal years 2023-24 through 2026-27) adds the rest: monthly certification pay of $90.00 to $210.00 by TCFP level, education pay, seven additional certification pays at $100.00 a month with up to three held at a time, specialty pays, Paramedic Pay at $100.00 a month, Medic Assignment Pay at $2.00 an hour while riding a Medic, and longevity at $4.00 a month for every year of service with no 25-year cap. Overtime on the 24/48 schedule is built into the shift rate on the pay plan.
The table, from Article 11
| Pay | Monthly amount | Who qualifies |
|---|---|---|
| Intermediate fire certification | $90.00 | TCFP Intermediate Structure Fire Suppression |
| Advanced fire certification | $150.00 | TCFP Advanced |
| Master fire certification | $210.00 | TCFP Master |
| 30 hours toward a degree | $60.00 | Completed courses at an accredited college or university |
| Associate's degree | $90.00 | Same |
| Bachelor's degree | on the table | The posted copy did not extract cleanly; read the row in the agreement |
| ARFF | $100.00 | Certified Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighter through TCFP |
| Bomb Technician | $100.00 | Certified through the FBI |
| HAZMAT Technician | $100.00 | Certified through TCFP |
| Fire Inspector | $100.00 | Certified through TCFP |
| Fire/Arson Investigator | $100.00 | Certified through TCFP |
| TCOLE Peace Officer | $100.00 | Licensed peace officer |
| Wildland Firefighter | $100.00 | Certified through TCFP |
| Field Training Officer | $200.00 | Assigned |
| Honor Guard or Pipes and Drums | $50.00 | Assigned |
| Peer Support | $50.00 | Assigned to the department program |
| Bilingual, oral | $100.00 | Certified under department standards and assigned to the program |
| Bilingual, oral, reading and writing | $150.00 | Same; not paid cumulatively for more than one language |
| Paramedic Pay | $100.00 | Licensed paramedic |
| Medic Assignment Pay | $2.00 an hour | While assigned to ride a Medic on shift |
How the pays stack
Certification and education pays in Section 1 are cumulative with each other, and they start the first pay period after proof is submitted and verified. The additional certification pays in Section 3 are capped: a firefighter may hold a maximum of three at a time, chooses which three, and can change the election by notifying Fire Administration by October 31 of the year. The specialty pays in Section 4 and the paramedic pays in Section 5 sit on top of both. A TCFP Master with a paramedic licence assigned to a Medic and holding three additional certifications is the shape of the top of this table.
Longevity and the fitness incentive
Longevity pay is $4.00 a month for each year of service with the Denton Fire Department, and the agreement removes the 25-year cap in Section 141.032 of the Local Government Code so it keeps accruing. The agreement also authorizes an optional tiered fitness incentive: a one-time payment of $600 or $500 for the top two ratings on the department's fitness assessment, described in the agreement as an incentive rather than an entitlement.
Overtime inside the shift rate
The FY 2025-2026 Civil Service Fire Pay Plan prints its shift-rate calculation as a footnote: the annualized rate is the hourly rate times 2,928 annual hours worked including FLSA overtime hours, plus the overtime premium. The 2,928 comes from 120 actual hours in eighteen 14-day pay cycles and 96 in the other eight, under the city's 14-day work period; the footnote counts 14 overtime hours in each 120-hour cycle and applies a one-half premium to them. In plain terms, on the 24/48 schedule some two-week cycles run past the FLSA threshold and the half-time premium on those hours is already inside the annual figures the plan prints. The agreement's productive-time rule adds one detail: a sick day in a pay period counts as productive hours toward overtime when the firefighter also works mandatory or forced overtime that period, and not when the overtime was voluntary.
Sources
- City of Denton and Denton Fire Fighters Association IAFF Local 1291, Meet and Confer Agreement, fiscal years 2023-24 through 2026-27 (October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2027), Article 11 (certification, education and specialty pays), the productive-time, longevity and fitness-incentive sections, Laserfiche docid 457726, read September 8, 2026.
- City of Denton, Civil Service Fire Pay Plan FY 2025-2026, effective January 3, 2026, shift-rate footnote, Laserfiche docid 76168, read September 8, 2026.
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