As the frontline staff of the Denver Health Paramedic Division, we write to you today to express our frustration around issues of pay and the apparent disinterest of our administration to work on solving these problems. The abysmal retention of our experienced paramedics is directly linked to management’s refusal to address pay disparities.

Most of us have been aware of pay disparities caused by wage compression for years. It is common knowledge that, in order to be paid fairly for the experience accrued working at DHPD, you need to be separated from the organization and rehired. The 2-3% annual raise comes nowhere near cost-of-living adjustments, and, at this point, falls short of keeping pace with inflation.

The pay disparity has been further worsened by the exodus of healthcare workers during the pandemic. Starting wages have been driven up to attract new employees, but nothing has been done to improve the stagnant wages of current employees. We have numerous ALS field training officers making less than newer hires brought on as brand new paramedics.

The Mercer adjustment was touted as a way to move toward a more equitable pay scale. Instead, it exacerbated the problem. Employees with five or more years of service had their pay increased by an average of 1%, while two year employees who had no experience prior to this had increases of up to 18%. Administration indicated that they would do a full audit of these inconsistencies and correct problems by May of 2021. We have yet to see any results from the promised investigation, and furthermore, we have had no indication that there is any intent to even begin this work.

We are still here because we care about our patients, our community, and this organization. We want to maintain the reputation for excellence in clinical care that brought us here. Understaffing in conjunction with increasing call volume is making us all weary. The lack of leadership apparent in the refusal to address discrepancies in pay is driving the attrition by making employees feel unheard and undervalued.  To this end, we have three demands.

1. An immediate audit of pay including the impacts of the Mercer Adjustment. This must incorporate an accounting of each employee’s relevant experience and qualifications.

2. Bring the pay of all employees up to correspond with the base, midpoint, and maximum pay posted in the current job descriptions

3. Development of a fair and transparent pay scale that rewards tenure with the Paramedic Division