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

The short answer. There is no single Massachusetts firefighter salary. Civil service cities and towns hire from one statewide Municipal Firefighter Examination, and the pay sits in each community's own agreement, almost always written in weekly rates. Of the fourteen departments read on September 9, 2026, nine print an annual figure somewhere the public can read it: New Bedford's $49,583.04 (Firefighter 1, FY2026 budget schedule), Cambridge's $55,759 (July 2024 column of an agreement that ended June 30, 2025), Plymouth's $64,496.12 (step 1, table effective July 1, 2026), Boston's $65,000 (recruiting page), Newton's $65,567 (step 1, FY27 scale effective July 1, 2026), Brookline's $68,749.49 (step 1, rate guide effective July 1, 2026), Agawam's $73,436 (Firefighter EMT, a scale the page dates to July 1, 2027), Reading's $78,492.26 (entry with paramedic) and Watertown's $88,014.67 (Firefighter-Paramedic, December 2025 vacancy announcement). None prints a separate academy rate. The printed firefighter tops run from New Bedford's $67,205.06 at Firefighter 5 and Plymouth's $76,872.12 at step 6 to Cambridge's $79,508 after three years, Brookline's $85,505.69 at 20 years and Newton's $86,258 at step 8. Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, Brockton and Somerville print the exam route or a percentage-only agreement and no figure. The state's 2026 examination took applications June 22 through August 31, 2026, with the written test October 2 through 10; no application period was open on the read date, though Watertown's Firefighter-Paramedic announcement and Agawam's paramedic local register carried no closing date. The registry counts 363 Massachusetts fire departments, 32.2 percent of them career and 15.7 percent mostly career.

Last verified: 2026-09-09.

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. In Massachusetts the state Human Resources Division runs one Municipal Firefighter Examination a year for every civil service community, and each city or town hires from the resulting list with its own residency preference. The pay is somewhere else: in the collective bargaining agreement the community signs, and those agreements are written in weekly rates for a 42-hour average week. This page carries an annual figure only when the employer's own document prints one, whether an agreement's annual column, a town rate guide's annualized column, a budget salary schedule, a vacancy announcement or a recruiting page, with the document and the read date, and nothing more. A weekly or hourly rate is never multiplied into a salary the employer did not print. A union's social post, a news story about a contract, a payroll disclosure and a salary aggregator are not sources here. Where an agreement's term has ended and no successor is posted, the row carries it and says so.

The Texas comparison, built the same way at a larger N, is Texas firefighter salary 2026 by department. Missouri, Indiana, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Colorado and California, built the same way, are here, here, here, 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 annual when the employer prints one. No Massachusetts row does: recruits attend the state's career recruit program on the step 1 or entry rate their community prints.
• Starting (certified) is the first annual figure the document names for the firefighter title: Boston $65,000 (recruiting page), Cambridge $55,759 (Fire Fighter minimum, July 1, 2024 column), New Bedford $49,583.04 (Firefighter 1, FY2026 schedule), Newton $65,567 (step 1, FY27 scale), Brookline $68,749.49 (step 1, rate guide effective July 1, 2026), Plymouth $64,496.12 (step 1, salary table effective July 1, 2026), Agawam $73,436 (Firefighter EMT minimum of a range that runs to $78,435.91 by education), Watertown $88,014.67 (Firefighter-Paramedic base, December 12, 2025 announcement) and Reading $78,492.26 (entry with paramedic).
• Top firefighter step is the highest printed firefighter-rank annual before promotion: Cambridge $79,508 after three years, New Bedford $67,205.06 at Firefighter 5 (a 25-year step of $69,221.36 sits above it), Newton $86,258 at step 8, Brookline $85,505.69 at 20 years, Plymouth $76,872.12 at step 6. Boston, Agawam, Watertown and Reading print a start and no top; Reading's year-4 figure of $96,318.93 is named, not carried as a top.
• Source is the document title, the link, the year or effective date where the document prints one, and the date we read it.
• Every annual figure is base pay as the document prints it. Newton's scale says base wages only; New Bedford's schedule prints night differential and hazardous-duty pay in separate weekly columns; Reading adds night differential and holidays to base; Watertown's degree incentives ($6,770.49 and $10,159.35 a year) and Cambridge's 5 percent weekend and night differentials sit outside the columns.

Why isn't there a statewide starting salary?

Because Massachusetts separates the examination from the pay. The state Human Resources Division's 2026 Municipal Firefighter Examination opened June 22, 2026 and closed August 31, 2026, with a $75 fee, a written test October 2 through 10, 2026, an entry-level physical ability test in Hudson scheduled afterward, and a statewide eligible list whose establishment date was still to be determined on the read date; the state page names information sessions held by Chicopee, Springfield and Brockton in August. Candidates choose the communities they want to work in when they apply, and each civil service community hires from the list with residency and veteran preference, an age floor of 19 by the last date to apply, and, in Boston, a ceiling of under 32 on the test date. The salary belongs to the community's agreement, and most of those agreements print weekly rates, so a city can post its full contract and this page will carry nothing from it. Nine of the fourteen departments read print an annual figure: Newton in its FY25 to FY27 agreement, Cambridge in its 2022 to 2025 agreement, Brookline in its town rate guide, Plymouth in its salary tables, New Bedford in its adopted budget, and Boston, Agawam, Watertown and Reading on a page or announcement. Worcester's posted memorandum prints percentage raises and no schedule; Lowell's agreement refers to an Appendix B grid the posted copy does not include; Springfield, Brockton and Somerville print the exam route and no figure, so those rows stay null with each document named. The Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Colorado and California clones use the same rule: null is a value, conflicts are named, and weekly and hourly rates 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 9, 2026; registry last updated June 11, 2026) lists 363 registered fire departments in Massachusetts, 32.2 percent of them Career and 15.7 percent Mostly career, the highest career share of any state read so far. 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 it is a kickoff, not a census; the next documents to open are the agreements and rate guides of Lynn, Lawrence, Quincy, Fall River, Framingham, Haverhill, Waltham, Malden, Medford, Chicopee, Taunton, Weymouth, Peabody and Pittsfield, the town pay plans that print annualized fire tables the way Brookline's and Plymouth's do, and Lowell's Appendix B when the city posts it.

Rows to read carefully

Boston. The How To Become A Firefighter page prints a starting salary of $65,000 and no step table. The Local 718 memorandum of agreement for July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2028 prints general wage increases of 2.5 percent in July 2024 and 2 percent in each of July 2025, 2026 and 2027, plus longevity-in-base percentages at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years, and no salary schedule. Probation runs a year and covers the academy, Firefighter I/II and EMT certification.

Newton. The IAFF Local 863 agreement for July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2027 prints hourly, weekly and annual columns for each year. The FY27 scale, effective July 1, 2026, runs eight steps from $65,567 to $86,258, base wages only, on a 42-hour average week; firefighters hired since June 30, 2014 start at step 1 and move a step a year, so the top comes after seven years. Lieutenants sit 21.5 percent above top-step firefighter, and the officer scale prints $104,805, $122,620 and $143,468. The FY25 column started at $61,803.

Brookline and Plymouth. Two towns print annualized fire tables in their own pay documents. Brookline's rate guide effective July 1, 2026 prints Fire Fighter steps 1 through 4 at $68,749.49, $71,874.18, $75,296.93 and $79,062.12, Firefighter 15 at $81,434.09, Fire Fighter 20/SR at $85,505.69 and Fire Lt from $95,665.37, all at 42 hours; the guide defers to the contract on any discrepancy. Plymouth's salary tables effective July 1, 2026 print F-1 Firefighters in six steps from $64,496.12 to $76,872.12, F-2 Lieutenant from $77,157.60 and Battalion Chief from $101,011.56, with a 2 percent change recorded and no step timing printed.

Cambridge. Article 27 of the Local 30 agreement for July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2025 prints annual schedules: effective July 1, 2024 (3.0 percent), Fire Fighter $55,759 at the minimum, $63,665 after the first year, $71,586 after two years and $79,508 after three years (maximum), Lieutenant $94,299. The amounts include a $400 increase from 2016 and the former $1,000 clothing allowance; weekend and night differentials are each 5 percent of top-step base. The term ended June 30, 2025 and no successor is posted, so the row is partial.

New Bedford. The FY2026 adopted budget's Fire Department salary schedule prints Firefighter 1 through 5 at $49,583.04, $54,038.92, $57,884.58, $61,882.60 and $67,205.06 a year, a 25-year step of $69,221.36 and Lieutenant from $77,954.96, with night differential and hazardous-duty pay in separate weekly columns. The schedule is the July 2025 to June 2026 year, and the Local 841 memorandum, with 2 percent raises in July 2022, 2023 and 2024, ran through June 30, 2025; the row is partial. The full agreement the city posted in 2020 is a scanned image and was not read.

Agawam, Watertown, Reading. Three pages built for paramedics. Agawam prints Firefighter EMTs at $73,436 to $78,435.91 and Firefighter Paramedics at $77,621 to $82,621 a year without overtime, step raises at 1, 2, 5, 15 and 25 years and 25-year paramedics at $95,075 or more, under a footnote that the figures depend on education and that the pay scale is effective July 1, 2027; the town was taking paramedic applications from a civil service local register with no exam required and no closing date printed, so the row carries the EMT minimum and is marked partial for the scale's date. Watertown's December 12, 2025 vacancy announcement prints a $88,014.67 base for Firefighter-Paramedics hired through the Local Register Alternate Pathway, ages 19 to 31 with a Massachusetts paramedic certification, plus $6,770.49 for an associate's degree and $10,159.35 for a bachelor's degree in fire science or a related field; the city lists positions as open until filled. Reading prints entry-level base pay with paramedic at $78,492.26, year 4 at $96,318.93 and year 4 with a bachelor's degree at $104,996.31, education incentives of 5, 10 and 15 percent, and hires paramedics through the state exam.

Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, Brockton, Somerville. Null, each for a reason the document states. Worcester posts the Local 1009 memorandum for July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026 with 3, 1, 3 and 2 percent increases and no schedule. Springfield's Employment as a Firefighter page and its 2025 job-board bulletin print the exam route and no salary. Lowell's 2021 to 2024 agreement says the weekly wages are in an Appendix B grid, and the posted copy ends at the signature page without it. Brockton's employment page prints the exam route and names an April 2020 written exam. Somerville's careers page sends firefighter applicants to the state Human Resources Division, its Becoming a Firefighter page prints the 2023 exam dates and no salary, and a 2019 open-house release printed $56,700, which is named here and not carried.

Which application doors are open today?

• None from the state. The 2026 Municipal Firefighter Examination closed August 31, 2026; candidates sit the written test October 2 through 10, 2026, then the physical ability test in Hudson, and the eligible list's establishment date was to be determined on the read date. The state holds the exam annually, so the 2027 application period would be expected next summer.
• Watertown was taking Firefighter-Paramedic applications under its December 12, 2025 vacancy announcement, listed as open until filled unless otherwise specified; Agawam was taking Firefighter/Paramedic applications from a civil service local register with no closing date printed. Both are paramedic doors that skip the written exam, not entry-level firefighter examinations.
• Boston, Somerville and Cambridge apply a one-year residency preference from the exam date; Boston also caps applicants at under 32 on the test date.