Federal Wildland Firefighter (Seasonal)

Pays you

$21–$25/hr

Base only, Rest-of-US GW table: GW-3 $20.93/hr, GW-4 $22.97/hr, GW-5 $25.12/hr; locality pay adds on top (one source reports GW-4 step 1 at $23.20/hr in a locality area). NOTHING IS DEDUCTED FOR HOUSING WHEN DEPLOYED — on incident assignment, lodging is paid by the government and you collect the $68/day federal per diem for meals and incidentals on top of wages. At your home duty station, government barracks/quarters are sometimes available BUT ARE CHARGED A FEE, and many rookies rent their own place in an expensive fire-town market — this is the one real cost. Overtime is base x 1.5 and is the bulk of earnings; hazard pay adds 25% of base for uncontrolled fireline; Incident Response Premium Pay (new under the 2025 Act) adds a daily supplement of 450% of your hourly base rate, capped at $9,000 per calendar year. Illustrative 16-hour fire day for a GW-4: $185.60 base + $278.40 OT + $92.80 hazard = $556.80. A typical busy 6-month season for an entry GW-3 totals about $53,894 gross including OT, hazard, incident pay and per diem; a busy 3-month student season about $26,947; a big year on a hotshot crew can top $82,358. Entry firefighters commonly log ~700 OT hours in a good season, hotshots 1,000-1,200. Because food and lodging are covered on assignment, a firefighter who is out on rolls most of the summer spends almost nothing and can bank the majority of it.

$0–$800 upfront to start