What is an Emergency Medical Technician?

• EMTs, also called paramedics, provide emergency medical assistance to people in sudden and urgent circumstances. Emergency medical technicians provide assistance to patients dealing with childbirth, heart attacks, car accidents and even gunshot wounds, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS also says that they are typically sent out by an emergency or 911 dispatcher to the scene and work in conjunction with local police and firefighters to remove patients from the scene and treat them while transporting them to the nearest hospital or emergency room.
  
  

National Salary Range

• As of May 2009, the Occupational Employment Statistics listed the average salary of an emergency medical technician as $33,020 a year, or $15.88 hourly. The OES, a subdivision of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, also notes that the middle 50 percent of emergency medical technicians made somewhere between $11.37 and $18.87 an hour. This calculates to an annual salary of $23,650 to $39,250 per year.
  
  

Location Variation

• Just like in real estate, location means everything when it comes to the wages of an emergency medical technician. The state with the highest concentration of emergency medical technicians per 1,000 people is Missouri, where the average wage is $32,630 a year or $15.69 an hour. West Virginia, another state with a dense population of EMTs, only averaged $23,860 per year or $11.47 per hour. The most profitable state for an emergency medical technician was Hawaii, where the mean wage was $47,380 annually, or $22.78 hourly, as of May 2009.
  
  

Industry Variation

• Surprisingly, the industry an emergency medical technician's employer is in also affects the average pay rate. Ambulatory health care services of course topped the list of biggest industry for EMTs, and those in this industry earn a mean wage of $30,110 annually, or $14.48 hourly. The second-biggest employment industry for emergency medical technicians was local governments, which offered an average wage of $36,780 a year, or $17.68 an hour, as of May 2009. The most profitable industry was support activities for mining, which averaged a much bigger salary of $55,380 annually, or $26.63 hourly.