Firefighter Overtime Discussing Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Firefighters, First Responders as well as Human Resource & Finance Professional

Facing a growing EMS staffing shortage, city officials in Fort Worth, Texas have launched a pilot program that shifts ambulance crews from a traditional 12-hour schedule to a 24-hours-on, 48-hours-off rotation. The temporary change is meant to stabilize staffing levels and keep ambulances on the street as call volumes continue to climb. The schedule change comes as Fort Worth, like ...

Across the United States volunteer fire departments are facing a growing crisis: fewer volunteers, increasing call volumes, and increasing training demands. A recent debate in New York over whether that state’s laws should be altered to allow fire departments to pay volunteer firefighters has reignited a long-standing question in the fire service—should volunteers be paid, and if so, how? The ...

A group of firefighters in Bluefield, West Virginia, has filed a lawsuit against their employer, the City of Bluefield, alleging that officials have improperly calculated their pay for decades, resulting in lower regular and overtime wages. The lawsuit , which was filed in West Virginia state court, centers on the method the city uses to convert firefighters’ annual salaries into ...

A former Fire Lieutenant from the Chatham County Fire Department has filed a federal lawsuit against his old employer alleging multiple violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The lawsuit, which was filed by James Zeigler on March 2, 2026, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, contains allegations that the county’s pay practices ...

The City of Gulf Shores has reached a court approved settlement with two former police officers following their November 2025 lawsuit that contained allegations the city failed to properly compensate the officers for off-the-clock work related to the care and maintenance of their assigned K9s. Former officers Shawn Andrews and Stacy McElroy filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court ...

Three fire captains employed by the City of Bondurant, Iowa have filed a lawsuit alleging the city failed to properly pay overtime required under both Iowa law and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The case was originally filed in Iowa District Court for Polk County earlier this year and later removed by the city to federal court because it ...

A group of more than one hundred current and former employees of the East Hartford Fire Department have filed a federal lawsuit against the Town of East Hartford, Connecticut, alleging violations of the FLSA. The plaintiffs (firefighters) make two basic claims. First, that the Town failed to calculate the firefighters’ regular rate correctly and as a result shorted the firefighters’ ...

State legislators in Vermont and Maryland have proposed new legislation that would mandate firefighter overtime be based on a 42-hour average workweek as opposed to the FLSA’s standard overtime requirements. In recent years, firefighters from across the country have been advocating for a reduction in the number of hours they are traditionally scheduled to work. Key to this effort is ...

The City of West Des Moines, Iowa has agreed to pay nearly $350,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by current and former fire officers who alleged they were denied overtime pay in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). According to The Des Moines Register, the lawsuit was filed by 15 current and former fire officers who claimed ...

According to a complaint filed January 21, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, an EMT employed by the City of Batesville alleges that the city denied him and other similarly situated EMTs overtime and later retaliated against him after he complained. The lawsuit was filed by Jacob Michael King, a former EMT for Batesville ...