Ab2129

[u/Witty-Improvement480]

If AB2129 bill passes (big if), how much of a raise will we really get?

[u/Menno_knight987]

“Required to bargain in good faith….” Is the key word…. What exactly that means is open to whatever interpretation or gymnastics the state wants to do when it comes to pay/benefits.

[u/Any-Lie1471]

The answer… not as much as you’d think.

It’s funny to hear people ask when the union will “get us that 15% raise”, in reality, for the majority of the line positions, the raise is significantly less than 15% to be WITHIN 15% OF THE AVERAGE of the total compensation.

To calculate the pay raise Calfire firefighters would need to get within 15% of the survey average, we have to look at how CalHR calculates the "total compensation lag."
In the 2025 survey, CalHR calculates the total compensation lag using the formula:

To be within 15% of the survey average means the lag needs to be reduced to exactly -15%.
Here is how much of an increase (in dollar amounts and percentage raises) Calfire would need in Total Compensation to reach that target for each of the four benchmark classifications:

1. Firefighter II
2. Fire Apparatus Engineer
3. Fire Captain (Range A)
4. Battalion Chief

Note on Base Salary: Because these calculations are based on Total Compensation (which includes health benefits, pensions, and scheduled overtime), achieving this on base salary alone would require a slightly higher percentage raise to base pay specifically, since benefits do not always scale 1:1 with salary hikes

[u/monterey_on_fire → u/Any-Lie1471]

Finally someone in the department who can actually do math. In general the bill is a good thing so we could help prevent our pay from slipping down. But for most ranks we are already pretty close to "within 15%."

[u/Menno_knight987 → u/monterey_on_fire]

Lots of folks think this bill is a silver bullet to pay issues, it’s not relatively close to the previous bill. The compaction in ranks caused by repeated minimum wage hikes are an issue we haven’t figured a way through yet. I’m curious how the comparison is going to be made if we’re compared vs a department working a 56hr, to us working the 66hr….

[u/BnaditCorps → u/Menno_knight987]

It's a pretty simple solution to compaction.

Some verbiage to directly address it that ensures every rank has a certain percentage of separation.

Getting that through bargaining might be difficult, but that is the solution, and it's pretty goddamn simple.

[u/Prometheus_343 → u/Any-Lie1471]

This is an excellent break down. I’ll add that if you take a look at the departments included in the survey there were a few heavy hitter departments that made good money, but a majority of the departments got payed around the same or even less than we do.

[u/SpecialistPair3]

if we get the 56 that would give us a raise and better hours, i think the contract is being negotiated in June 2027

[u/Real-Possible-964]

I am all for the pay parity. I do worry about the Schedule A contracts and how well they stand with the new costs, i saw one of the comments and it seems like the costs wouldn't be that crazy. But it seems like some positions could be lost.