Florida Firefighter Salary 2026 by Department: Fourteen Departments, Their Own Documents

The short answer. There is no single Florida firefighter salary. This page opens fourteen departments' own documents, read September 8, 2026, and prints what each one says: Tampa's Local 754 agreement (Appendix A, rates effective March 29, 2026), Martin County's Local 2959 agreement (Salary Table 2025/2026), St. Johns County's Local 3865 agreement (FY2025 salary structure, the last one posted), Orange County's own release on the Local 2057 agreement approved May 19, 2026, Fort Lauderdale's Local 765 contract (Appendix A, October 1, 2023 rates, the only table in the posted copy), Orlando's two city pages, which disagree with each other, Miami-Dade's FY 2025-2026 pay plan, which prints biweekly steps, St. Petersburg's Local 747 agreement (FY25 row, the last one posted), and Palm Beach County's own hiring page; a second tier read the same night adds Tallahassee's city pay plan (Firefighters, thirteen steps), Cape Coral's July 2026 posting, Jacksonville's posting open through September 30, 2026, and Hillsborough County's and Gainesville's pages, which print no figure. Ten print an annual starting figure. The registry counts 389 Florida fire departments, 45.5 percent of them career and 16.7 percent mostly career, a higher career share than any state except Hawaii and the District of Columbia.

Last verified: 2026-09-08.

The national picture, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics medians beside these department figures, is on the firefighter salary guide 2026.

This is not a statewide table and it is not an apply-now board. Two dated windows were open on the read date: Jacksonville's posting closes September 30, 2026 and Tallahassee's Fall list cutoff is October 1, 2026; St. Petersburg and Palm Beach County describe their windows without dates. Every row records what the department's, city's or county's document prints and nothing more. A 2023 table and a 2026 table are not averaged into one "Florida start," and a biweekly step is not multiplied into an annual salary the county never printed.

The Texas comparison, built the same way at a larger N, is Texas firefighter salary 2026 by department. Missouri, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Colorado and California, built the same way, are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

What do these documents actually show?

Three column definitions, because most published comparisons blur roles, and the blur is where the misleading numbers come from.

• Recruit / academy is a printed pre-certification or orientation annual when the employer prints one. Only Orange County does, in its own release: $59,072 during the department's 10-week orientation. Miami-Dade pays a trainee 4.5 percent below step 1 of a biweekly plan, which is a rule, not an annual, and stays in the notes.
• Starting (certified) is the first annual firefighter figure the document names: Tampa's F-1 EMT1 row ($62,275.20, March 29, 2026 table), Martin County's Firefighter EMT Step 1 ($55,041, 2025/2026 table), St. Johns County's Firefighter/EMT Step 1 ($51,407.39, FY2025 structure), Orange County's rate on completing orientation ($62,025, May 2026 release), Fort Lauderdale's F1 step 1A ($64,896.86, October 1, 2023 schedule), St. Petersburg's Firefighter Step E ($54,909, FY25 row), Palm Beach County's posted starting salary for a Firefighter EMT/Paramedic ($60,650, marked subject to change), Tallahassee's Firefighters step 1 ($44,177.71, city pay plan), Cape Coral's July 2026 posting minimum ($65,569.92) and Jacksonville's posting rate ($54,120, open through September 30, 2026).
• Top firefighter step is the highest printed firefighter-rank annual before promotion: Tampa's F-1 Step 12 ($118,135.68, with Step 11 at $97,418.88 just above it), Martin County's Step 10 ($92,990), St. Johns County's Step 20 ($71,914.28), Fort Lauderdale's F1-H ($95,151.17), St. Petersburg's Step M ($87,573, FY25), Tallahassee's step 13 ($70,729.93) and Cape Coral's posting maximum ($101,687.04, a range rather than a step). Orange County's release, Palm Beach County's page and Jacksonville's bulletin print none.
• Source is the document title, the link, the effective date or fiscal year where the document prints one, and the date we read it.
• Every annual figure is base pay. Paramedic money sits outside the columns and differs in kind: Tampa pays $120 biweekly for a paramedic certification and $220 for a Paramedic of Record; Martin County prints a separate Firefighter Paramedic scale, $63,716 to $107,647; St. Johns County pays a $10,400 annual incentive; Orlando's guide prints $6,083 a year; Orange County's release puts a firefighter/paramedic at $70,959 to start and $73,909 after orientation.

Why isn't there a statewide starting salary?

Because Florida does not publish one, and averaging ten starts drawn from a city pay plan, two 2026 postings, a March 2026 table, a 2025/2026 table, an FY2025 structure, a May 2026 release, an October 2023 schedule, an FY25 row and an undated hiring page would be our arithmetic, not an employer's. The Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado and California clones use the same rule: null is a value, conflicts are named, and rates the employer prints by the hour or by the pay period are not converted.

The universe is measured but not yet counted. The U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire Department Registry (state totals read September 8, 2026; registry last updated June 11, 2026) lists 389 registered fire departments in Florida, 45.5 percent of them Career and 16.7 percent Mostly career. The registry prints those shares as percentages, not as a count, so this page does not turn them into a number of career departments. Fourteen departments against a universe where roughly three in five are career or mostly career is a kickoff, not a census. Jacksonville's agreement is still unopened (its posting carries the rate), Hillsborough County's pages print requirements without pay, Broward's rank-and-file agreement is hosted by the union rather than the sheriff's office, and Pasco County posts its agreement as a scan whose pay tables did not read cleanly; those are the next documents to open properly.

Rows to read carefully

Orlando. Two city pages disagree. The recruiting page offers certified firefighters a starting salary of $64,219.23; the Firefighter Benefits Guide prints a first-year base salary of $51,370.39 beside a 10-year base of $79,020.48. Neither page carries an effective date, and the guide's figure may be older, but this page does not choose between a city's own documents. The starting column is blank and both figures are in the row's notes until the city reconciles its pages or posts the agreement.

Miami-Dade. The county's FY 2025-2026 pay plan, effective October 1, 2025, prints the Firefighter classification as twenty biweekly steps, $1,811.11 at step 1 and $4,606.54 at step 20. The Local 1403 agreement places an academy graduate at step 5, $2,168.39 biweekly, with yearly progression after that, and adds cost-of-living increases of 3 percent in April 2024, 3 percent in April 2025 and 4 percent in April 2026. No annual is printed anywhere in the two documents, so the row carries no annual.

Fort Lauderdale. The posted Local 765 contract prints one wage schedule, effective October 1, 2023, and provides that the ranges move by formula in October 2024 and October 2025 without printing those tables. The city's careers page says the starting pay listed in 2025 was over $69,000 and prints no table. The row carries the 2023 schedule, labeled as such, and the careers page's sentence in the notes.

St. Johns County. The agreement ran through September 30, 2025 and its FY2025 amendments are the last table on the county's site. Its Firefighter/EMT structure has twenty steps, from $51,407.39 to $71,914.28, with a $10,400 paramedic incentive outside the scale. The row is FY2025's until a successor posts.

Orange County. The figures are the county's own, printed in its May 19, 2026 release on the agreement's approval: $59,072 to start and $62,025 after orientation for a firefighter, $70,959 and $73,909 for a firefighter/paramedic, with 5 percent annual steps. The agreement text was not opened for this page, so the row has no top step.

Tampa. The F-1 grade runs EMT1 through EMT3 and then Steps 1 through 12; Step 12, at $118,135.68, sits well above Step 11's $97,418.88 and is recorded as the top printed step because it is one. The agreement's table effective September 26, 2027 adds 3 percent across the grade. Hourly rates are built on 2,496 hours a year.

St. Petersburg. The posted Local 747 agreement ran September 26, 2022 through September 21, 2025, and its Appendix A prints FY25 as the last row: Firefighter Step E $54,909 to Step M $87,573, Firefighter/Paramedic $70,441 to $103,337, with a note that the numbers are approximate due to rounding. The department's careers page prints an FY26 table only for its separate non-firefighter Paramedic classification. The row is FY25's until the successor posts.

Palm Beach County. The county's hiring page prints a starting salary of $60,650 for a Firefighter EMT/Paramedic, marked subject to change, with a 12-year step increase and a 24-on, 72-off schedule. It requires the Florida Firefighter Certificate of Compliance and a Florida EMT or paramedic certificate, and states that National Registry EMT certification is not accepted. The rank-and-file agreement was not opened; the county agenda packet found on the read date is the district chiefs' unit.

Tallahassee. The city's pay plan page prints Firefighters at grade 65 in thirteen steps, $44,177.71 to $70,729.93, with Engineers from $54,501.17 and Lieutenants from $66,407.92. The join page requires the Florida certificate of compliance and EMT card at application (or current enrollment), runs the FPSI aptitude test, a ten-event physical ability test and a panel interview, and sorts applicants into quarterly lists with cutoffs of January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1.

Cape Coral. Bulletin 09377 (July 21 to August 8, 2026) prints $65,569.92 to $101,687.04 for a certified Firefighter, with a swim test and an oral interview after the application; the range's ends are carried and labeled a range.

Jacksonville. Bulletin 2022-04736 prints $18.59 an hour and $54,120.00 a year for the Firefighter classification, open July 27 through September 30, 2026; the Florida certificate of compliance, a Florida EMT or paramedic card, a CPAT letter and a Class E licence must be attached, and the department says applications are taken year-round.

Hillsborough County and Gainesville. Null. Hillsborough's county pages print requirements, standards and benefits and no salary; Gainesville's page points to the city's Workday site and an interest list and prints nothing else.

Which application doors are open today?

• Jacksonville: Firefighter bulletin 2022-04736 closes September 30, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern; the four documents (certificate of compliance, Florida EMT or paramedic card, licence, CPAT letter) must be attached.
• Tallahassee: applications are continuous; the next list cutoff under the department's rule is October 1, 2026, for the Fall list.
• Cape Coral: the July 2026 posting closed August 8, 2026; a subscribe link on the class specification gives notice of the next one. Hillsborough County opens recruitment periodically and routes candidates to a recruiter; Gainesville keeps an interest list through Human Resources.
• Orlando takes job-interest sign-ups through the city's Workday portal and runs a Fire Recruit program for candidates without certification; the recruiting page points certified applicants to the state's Bureau of Fire Standards and Training for the certificate.
• St. Petersburg lists its certified Firefighter/EMT and Firefighter/Paramedic application period as open through the National Testing Network, without a closing date; its Fire Cadet program for non-certified candidates was not accepting applications.
• Palm Beach County accepts applications only while a listing is active on the county jobs site, typically every one to two years, and takes a recruiting interest card in between.
• Orange County, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Miami-Dade, Martin County and St. Johns County: agreements, pay plans and a release only; no posting was opened for these rows.