Is this supposed to prove something other than salary.com doesn’t know the difference between a paid fire fighter and a volunteer fire fighter?
There’s a separate page for “Fire fighter”: Fire Fighter II Salary, Hourly Rate (May, 2025) in the United States | Salary.com
And?
Description of what it means to be a volunteer Firefighter.
Volunteer vs Regular/Career Firefighter: What’s The Difference? (firefighterinsider.com)
Fact sheet from the National Volunteer Fire Council.
National Volunteer Fire Council (nvfc.org)
The Salary.com link above ignores the word volunteer. If you look at the graph on that link it shows pay for “volunteer” firefighters by major city. Those urban areas are career fulltime firefighters.
I dunno, my BFF’s husband of 13 years (and boyfriend/fiancé for another 6) was/is a “volunteer firefighter” and he got paid. It wasn’t his full-time gig and he didn’t get the sweet public safety union benefits, but he definitely did get paid. It’s how he paid for college. He considered (and AFAIK still considers because I very much doubt he’ll give it up until he absolutely has to) it a hobby that he got paid to do.
I’ve done income taxes for several “volunteer” firefighters and they, too, got/get paid.
I’m guessing that much of the time the distinction is more full-time vs part time, but I’m not exactly certain. I remember asking my BFF’s then-fiancé about it and I didn’t really understand his answer about why they’re called “volunteer” when they get paid so I’ve now forgotten what he said since it didn’t make sense to college-me.
But I will put it out there that we say we have an “all-volunteer” military and those folks are certainly getting paid. I don’t know if the same reasoning applies to volunteer firefighters or not.
Here’s a smattering of job postings I found with the title “volunteer firefighter”.
This one says it pays $13.50 an hour:
https://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=6d58abe4344eebed&from=serp
This one mentions a tax credit incentive and monetary stipend:
https://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=bce4b0af3d459178&from=serp
This one mentions a pretty generous pension (up to $115,000 
) in addition to $10 “per call” pay:
https://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=49507ab6c661bde7&from=serp
BFF’s ex was getting a per-call pay plus reimbursement for his mileage at the IRS rate. But he also got paid to go to meetings and other stuff. And if I ever knew what the per-call rate was I’ve long since forgotten. I do know that the vast majority of calls he would be sent home as soon as he arrived. It was rare for him to actually be dealing with an emergency that required more than a few minutes of his time. Getting there was the most time-consuming part. But occasionally there would be a real emergency that took some time.
Yes, volunteer firefighters frequently get some type of small reimbursement or stipend. That is significantly different than a full-time paid position. The link you provided to salary.com was very clearly showing the salary range for full-time paid positions.
And as far as this goes
Please note rate of pay is $12.00 per call.
Not necessarily a contradiction if the average call is 53.33 minutes.
Although that seems high to me based on my BFF’s ex’s experience. But it’s bimodal since most calls are like 5 minutes and then a few are several hours.
And you think this translates to an average annual “salary” of $46k?
No, I’m not sure where they got that annual salary number.
Although if you account for the value of the pension on the last position that may well come out to more than $46K depending on how you value the pension. Note to self: become volunteer firefighter in New Ulm, NM.
Volunteer firefighters have to get paid. They frequently marry assistant librarians and buy million dollar homes on House Hunters.
