Leland Township approved the firefighters wage schedule per schedule A, which highlights steady increases starting this year until 2028 for full-time fire department personnel including paramedics, EMTs and advanced EMTs, at a special meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Clint Mitchell, Leland Township supervisor, said the approved wage schedule should go into effect after April 1 when the new fiscal year begins. In the last contract, which was geared towards both recruitment and retention, Mitchell said rather than having cost of living raises throughout it, retention bonuses were included in it at the end of each year. The current wage schedule is geared more toward retention rather than recruitment though, with Mitchell adding that the firefighters preferred to have cost of living adjustments instead of the retention bonuses.
The wage schedule includes a 10% salary increase from the last contract, as well as 3.5% cost of living raises throughout the contract. The year-to-year step increases are roughly 5%, and the top-out wage schedule for paramedics was shortened to five years.
