The Provo City Council voted Tuesday to approve a pay increase for the city’s paramedics in hopes of retaining experienced medics and avoiding losing them to nearby cities with higher pay.

The starting pay for paramedics will be increased by 5%, with an additional 5% increase for those who reach the Paramedic II level. Senior and master-level paramedics will receive up to 10%.

Provo City’s website currently lists the pay range for a firefighter/EMT as about $49,716-$65,233 and a range of $56,183-$87,418 for a firefighter/paramedic.

Daniel Softley, human resources director, said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting that they compared Provo’s pay to other Utah fire departments and found salaries to be a “little low.”

Softley said the increase will cost $119,000 for the current fiscal year, with the increase needing to be budgeted for the future, which would likely be around $260,000 each year moving forward.

According to the staff report presented Tuesday, Orem has been targeting Provo’s paramedics in an attempt to hire them.

Last year, Orem increased the pay for its paramedics by about 5% and added an intermediate level between entry-level medics and senior-level, allowing for an additional pay adjustment as paramedics move in their careers.

With the pay increase, Provo also will be adding a similar intermediate level, Paramedic II, to help support EMS workers as they gain skills and experiences.

“That middle section (is for) moving them further along and giving those other newer paramedics an opportunity to accelerate quicker,” Softley said.

Council member Becky Bogdin said during the meeting that while she’s “100% supportive,” she wants to ensure the city can continue funding it without cutting other expenses.

“So I just want to make sure that we are looking at this and saying, ‘OK, this is going to be sufficiently funded in the years and we’re not cutting anything that’s really critical,'” she said.

John Borget, director of administrative services, said as of now, he isn’t sure where exactly the money will come from but the expense will be taken into account with each year’s budget process.

“I can tell you that we would take this into account, and it would be part of what we would need to consider and look at for the fiscal year ’25, which we’re working on now and going forward,” he said. If there were any cuts to expenses, he added, that what be presented to the council later on in the budget planning process for the upcoming year.

Borget said salary increases for other city employees based on the market are typically considered already when creating the budget.

Council member Rachel Whipple asked if raising pay to retain paramedics would save them money in the long run.

Softley said it could save them money because of the cost to the city to pay for paramedic and EMT training, and by keeping employees for longer they will pay less to train new employees. Employee turnover also costs the city, he added.

“So it would make more sense to do this kind of investment in our people so they’ll stay with us so that we can reduce turnover. Like financially, that makes more sense,” Whipple said.

Bogdin questioned if Provo has a policy requiring paramedics who have their training paid for by the city to stay with the department for a certain period of time, which Softley said he didn’t know if they have a contract requiring that.

Softley added that such a policy would be difficult to enforce and could cost more money if the city had to take an employee to court for breaking a contract.

Overall, the City Council voted unanimously to approve the pay increase.