# Federal Firefighter Pay Equity Act: What It Does

This bill addresses pay and retirement issues for firefighters who work for the federal government. Right now, federal firefighters often earn less than firefighters working for cities and states, even though they do the same dangerous work. This bill tries to fix that problem by adjusting how their pay is calculated and how their retirement benefits are figured out.

The main changes involve two things. First, the bill changes the formula used to calculate federal firefighters' base pay to be more generous—specifically, it adjusts a number used in the calculation from 2,756 to 2,087 hours. This might sound like a small technical change, but it actually increases how much federal firefighters earn. Second, the bill makes sure that when federal firefighters retire, their retirement benefits include credit for all the overtime hours they regularly work as part of their normal schedule. Currently, some of those hours might not count toward their retirement, which means they get smaller pensions than they should. By including these hours, retired federal firefighters will receive larger retirement checks.

The bill also requires the government to set a maximum workweek for federal firefighters—capped at an average of 60 hours per week. This establishes a clear standard for how much these employees can be required to work regularly. The changes would take effect 60 days after the bill becomes law and would apply to firefighters who retire after that point. Overall, the bill is designed to make federal firefighter compensation more competitive with other firefighting jobs and to ensure their retirement benefits accurately reflect the work they actually do.

Federal Firefighter Pay Equity Act

Connolly, Gerald E.

Federal Firefighter Pay Equity Act This bill modifies certain pay calculations that are used to determine retirement and annuity benefits for federal firefighters. Specifically, the bill adjusts the method of determining the average pay of a federal firefighter by adding one-half of a firefighter's basic hourly rate multiplied by the number of overtime hours included as part of&nbsp;such firefighter's regular tour of duty.&nbsp;It also requires the Office of Personnel Management to issue regulations that cap the number of hours in a regular workweek, which may not exceed 60 hours per week.