Hawaii's fire departments climb the slowest step ladder in the nation. A firefighter here signs up knowing the work: the calls in the middle of the night, the shifts away from home, the risk that comes with running toward what the rest of us run from. What they do not always see, on the day they are hired, is the quieter number the job hands them. The pay schedule already spells out how long the climb to the top of the base rank will take, and in Hawaii that climb takes twenty-eight years, longer than in any other department in the country that publishes a comparable pay ladder.
The finding
A base-rank Hawaii firefighter (HFFA Bargaining Unit 11, salary range SR-17) reaches the top step of the pay scale after 28 years. Across a 50-state survey built entirely from public pay schedules, of the 37 U.S. career departments that use a conventional step ladder, that is the longest timeline of the 37.
There is a second way to measure the same thing, one that needs no cost-of-living assumption at all: annualized base-pay growth, the total raise from entry to top divided by the years it takes to get there. On that measure Hawaii grows at just 1.5% a year, again the lowest of all 37, and less than a quarter of the survey median of about 6.8% a year. The raises themselves are ordinary, around 4% per step. The problem is that they land only about once every three years. This finding rests on published pay schedules alone.
Twenty-eight years to the top
The clearest way to see it is to line up years to the top step. Even Boston, the next-slowest department in the country, reaches its top step three years sooner. The typical surveyed department gets there in about a quarter of the time.
Years from entry to the top step of the base firefighter rank. "Survey median" is the median years to the top across the 37 departments.
Every step ladder in the survey, slowest first
All 37 departments that publish a conventional step-and-grade ladder, ranked by annualized base-pay growth. Hawaii sits at the bottom on both measures that matter: years to the top, and growth per year.
| # | Department | Yrs to top | Steps | Base growth / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii - HFFA BU-11 (SR-17) | 28.0 | 10 | 1.5% |
| 2 | Massachusetts - Boston | 25.0 | 8 | 2.1% |
| 3 | Maine - Portland | 20.0 | 7 | 2.3% |
| 4 | Iowa - Des Moines | 10.0 | 11 | 2.4% |
| 5 | Tennessee - Nashville | 17.0 | 18 | 2.4% |
| 6 | Kentucky - Louisville | 5.0 | 6 | 2.9% |
| 7 | South Carolina - Charleston | 3.0 | 4 | 2.9% |
| 8 | Florida - Jacksonville | 17.0 | 13 | 3.1% |
| 9 | Kansas - Wichita | 14.0 | 15 | 3.1% |
| 10 | Illinois - Chicago | 25.0 | 11 | 3.2% |
| 11 | South Dakota - Sioux Falls | 9.0 | 8 | 3.9% |
| 12 | Texas - Houston | 8.0 | 6 | 3.9% |
| 13 | Utah - Salt Lake City | 10.0 | 6 | 4.1% |
| 14 | Wyoming - Cheyenne | 5.0 | 5 | 4.4% |
| 15 | Oklahoma - Oklahoma City | 9.0 | 10 | 5.1% |
| 16 | Alabama - Birmingham | 9.0 | 10 | 6.1% |
| 17 | Nebraska - Omaha | 6.5 | 8 | 6.2% |
| 18 | Connecticut - Westport | 7.0 | 7 | 6.7% |
| 19 | Missouri - Springfield | 8.0 | 9 | 6.9% |
| 20 | Washington - Seattle | 3.5 | 5 | 7.1% |
| 21 | Minnesota - Minneapolis | 3.0 | 6 | 7.2% |
| 22 | Arizona - Phoenix | 16.0 | 17 | 7.4% |
| 23 | Nevada - Las Vegas | 9.0 | 11 | 7.4% |
| 24 | Pennsylvania - Philadelphia | 5.0 | 6 | 7.8% |
| 25 | Vermont - Burlington | 6.0 | 16 | 8.8% |
| 26 | Arkansas - Little Rock | 5.0 | 6 | 9.2% |
| 27 | New York - FDNY | 5.5 | 6 | 10.5% |
| 28 | Rhode Island - Providence | 5.0 | 3 | 10.5% |
| 29 | Maryland - Baltimore | 5.0 | 6 | 11.5% |
| 30 | New Jersey - Newark | 9.0 | 7 | 14.1% |
| 31 | Michigan - Detroit | 4.0 | 3 | 14.7% |
| 32 | Ohio - Columbus | 4.0 | 5 | 15.1% |
| 33 | Oregon - Portland | 5.0 | 7 | 16.1% |
| 34 | Colorado - Denver | 2.75 | 4 | 19.6% |
| 35 | Indiana - Indianapolis | 3.0 | 3 | 20.7% |
| 36 | Alaska - Anchorage | 3.0 | 6 | 20.8% |
| 37 | Wisconsin - Milwaukee | 5.3 | 8 | 23.0% |
Nine states publish no per-step dollar table and are excluded rather than estimated (GA, LA, MS, MT, NC, ND, NH, NM, VA). Los Angeles (salary ranges, not steps) and Charleston, WV (a 31-tier micro-longevity table, not a step ladder) are excluded as non-comparable. "Base growth per year" is the total entry-to-top percentage raise divided by the years to the top step.
"That's longevity pay, not step movement"
The natural objection is that the 28-year figure includes longevity steps, so it is not a fair step-ladder comparison. The numbers do not support the objection. Hawaii's ladder is four merit steps (E through H) followed by six longevity steps (L1 through L6). Count only the four merit steps and ignore all six longevity steps, and a Hawaii firefighter still does not reach the top merit step until roughly year 10 to 13. That is slower than the entire conventional ladder of nearly every peer department, which tops out in 2.75 to 9 years.
| Department, conventional ladder tops in | Years |
|---|---|
| Denver, CO | 2.75 |
| Spokane, WA | 3.0 |
| Seattle, WA | 3.5 |
| Boston, MA (merit steps) | 5.0 |
| FDNY, NY | 5.5 |
| San Jose, CA | 7.0 |
| Houston, TX | 8.0 |
| Las Vegas, NV | 9.0 |
| Hawaii, merit steps only | 10 to 13 |
| Hawaii, full ladder | 28 |
Counted either way, its merit steps alone or its full ladder, Hawaii tops out later than every peer's conventional ladder above.
The longevity steps are not what put Hawaii last. Remove them entirely and it still is.
Why it is so slow
The issue is not the size of each raise. It is the spacing. Hawaii's ten steps are each held for three to four years before the next one lands, while most peer ladders move a firefighter up about one step a year. A 4% step raise is ordinary. Receiving it only once every three years is not.
- Hawaii: 10 steps, each band 3 to 4 years wide, entry to top is 28 years.
- The median surveyed department: reaches its top step in about 6 to 7 years.
- The result: identical per-step raises, but the Hawaii firefighter spends roughly two decades longer climbing to the top of the base rank.
That is not only a line on a chart. It is most of a working life spent climbing toward a place on the pay scale that a firefighter in almost any other American city reaches within their first decade. And the people making that climb are the same ones answering the calls and showing up for a community that depends on them.
Two firefighters hired the same year, one in Hawaii and one in the median department, doing the same job: the same calls, the same risk, the same holidays away from home. One reaches the top of the base rank in about six years. The other is still climbing more than two decades later. Nothing about the work explains the gap. It is written into the pay schedule.
Where this comes from
Primary sources
- Hawaii firefighter schedule. State of Hawaii Department of Human Resources Development, Bargaining Unit 11 salary schedule, range SR-17, effective July 1, 2024 ($69,060 at entry to $98,328 at step L6), and the 2021 to 2025 HFFA collective bargaining agreement, section 32-A(O). The current post-adjustment schedule (a 3% across-the-board raise effective July 1, 2025) runs 3% higher, $71,132 to $101,278, with an identical step count, band width, and 28-year timeline, so the ranking and every finding here are unchanged.
- Peer departments. Each peer figure is drawn from that department's own primary schedule, its collective bargaining agreement, pay ordinance, or official salary table. Thirty-seven departments publish a usable conventional step ladder and are ranked here. The full 50-state dataset and per-department sources are available on request.
- Scope. "Step movement" means the automatic longevity and merit steps within the base firefighter rank. Promotions, overtime, holiday, and specialty pay are excluded throughout. This is an argument about time and rate of progression only. It makes no cost-of-living or dollar-gap claim.