Last week, the White House announced it is implementing a new set of pay increases that deliver retroactive pay increases to federal wildland firefighters, and improves recruitment and retention. Pay raises for federal firefighters had been included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), but had been held up as federal agencies studied recruitment and retention data to decide where to deliver the pay raises. The legislation stipulated that the $600 million in the BIL to increase pay for wildland firefighters should go to all wildland firefighters provided that they are “located within a specified geographic area in which it is difficult to recruit or retain a federal wildland firefighter.” Ultimately, the Biden Administration decided to raise pay for all federal wildland firefighters over the next two years.
In addition to the pay increases, the Administration announced a new Wildland Fire Management occupational series created by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, as well as a new initiative to support the mental health of federal firefighters.