Average Salary

• Of the estimated 302,400 firefighters working in the United States in 2010, about 23,460 of them were employed in Florida. Florida had the second-highest number of firefighters in the country, behind California with 33,100. The average salary in Florida was $24.04 per hour, or $50,010 per year. That was about 5 percent higher than the nationwide average rate for this occupation of $22.95 per hour, or $47,730 per year.
  
  

Salary Range

• The middle 50 percent of Florida firefighters were making $16.77 to $30.21 per hour in 2010, or $34,880 to $62,830 per year. The bottom 10 percent had wages of $13.17 per hour and less, or $27,400 and below. The top 10 percent were earning $37.73 per hour and higher, or $78,470 per year and more.
  
  

Highest-Paying Areas

• The highest average salaries for Florida firemen were in two metropolitan areas defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that include Fort Lauderdale. The average salary in the Miami-Miami Beach-Fort Lauderdale area was $31.96 per hour, or $66,490 per year, and in the Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach area, 29.99 per hour, or $62,370 per year. Average firefighting pay was also high in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach region, at $29.69 per hour, or $61,760 per year.
  
  

Other Areas

• Firefighters earned $25.49 per hour on average in Naples and Marco Island, $26.90 in Port St. Lucie and $26.95 in Cape Coral and Fort Myers. The lowest average salary for firefighters was in the northeast nonmetropolitan area of the state, at $12.70 per hour, or $26,410 per year. Average pay rates ranged from $16.20 to $22.20 per hour in all other parts of the state.