When the engine rolls out of the station, you see the firefighters. You should. They run toward the thing the rest of us run from.
But behind that engine is a payroll run, a purchase order, a personnel file, and a budget line for the truck itself. And behind all of that is a small crew of people you will never see. No turnout gear, no headlines. Just the quiet, unglamorous work that lets a fire department actually function.
The people you never see
Think about just a few of them:
- The account clerks who make sure every firefighter gets paid, on time, every single pay period.
- The accountant who tracks the capital dollars that build and repair the stations.
- The personnel staff who keep the records straight for hundreds of employees.
- The secretaries and office assistants who answer the phones, manage the schedules, and hold the whole administrative machine together.
None of them will ever pull you from a burning house. But every one of them is part of the reason the person who can, gets to.
The floor is too low for Maui
Here is the part that should sit with us. On Maui, the cost of living is among the highest in the nation. An account clerk who keeps the department's books starts at around $43,000 a year. Measured against what things actually cost here, that paycheck carries the real buying power of roughly $23,000 to $39,000 on the mainland, depending on how you count housing. On an island where the median home price runs past a million dollars and rent swallows a whole check, that is not a wage a family can build a life on. And these are some of the lowest-paid positions in the entire department. A support clerk can start even lower.
Many of these workers are classified as "confidential" employees, which in the language of Hawaii civil service means they are excluded from collective bargaining. They have no union at the table. When a raise does come, it is not because anyone fought for them at a contract negotiation, it is because someone chose to extend it. The personnel clerks who process everyone else's raises cannot bargain for their own.
It is not that the raises never come. It is that even after them, the floor stays low, in one of the most expensive places in America to live.
The ones who never ask
These are not people who ask for recognition. That is part of why they deserve it. They chose public service that comes with none of the visibility and all of the grind. They show up, they keep the lights on, and they let the sirens do the talking.
So this is a thank-you. To the clerks and the accountants, the secretaries and the assistants, the whole quiet crew that keeps Maui's fire service standing. You are not invisible to the people who know what you do.
When we talk about taking care of the people who keep us safe, remember that the list is longer than the ones in uniform. A fair pay floor, one that reflects what it actually costs to live on Maui, is the least we owe the people who keep the whole thing running.
Mahalo to all of you. We see you.
Where this comes from
Primary sources
- Job classifications and salary ranges. State of Hawaii Department of Human Resources Development, Compensation Plan 2025 (class-to-salary-range assignments) and the Bargaining Unit 03 salary schedule effective July 1, 2025. Account Clerk III is salary range SR-11, which runs $43,272 to $64,056 a year; several support classifications start lower.
- Cost-of-living adjustment. C2ER/MERIC Cost-of-Living Index (Q1 2026, housing-inclusive) and BEA Regional Price Parities (2023, all-items federal basis), the same measures used in our Maui firefighter salary benchmark. A $43,272 Maui salary equals roughly $23,400 to $39,300 in mainland buying power.
- Confidential, excluded status. Hawaii Revised Statutes chapter 89C and the DHRD classification plan: employees designated "confidential" (bargaining-unit code 63) are excluded from collective bargaining, and the appointing authority sets their pay adjustments, which must be no less than the applicable negotiated increase.