OUR PROBLEM
The City of Lompoc has been warned for years about the ongoing compensation disparity affecting the Lompoc Fire Department1. The recent salary analysis conducted by the City confirmed that Lompoc firefighters are astonishingly 23-28% behind our local comparable departments.
Initially, the retention issue mostly effected the fire fighter rank. However, in recent years, experienced members at all ranks, including chiefs, are leaving the Department regularly due to non-competitive compensation packages.
The Department is authorized to have 29 sworn personnel, but over the last ten years, more than 30 firefighters at all ranks have either left or not passed their probationary period, and when retirees are factored in, the number widens to nearly 40. This means that over the last decade, we’ve turned over nearly 140% of the Department. The lack of competitive compensation has made it difficult for the Department to attract and retain experienced firefighters. This has had a direct impact on the safety of our community because the loss of experienced firefighters diminishes institutional knowledge and expertise that is nearly impossible to replace. Moreover, the low compensation package diminishes the quality of the new hire pool and contributes to the high rate of turnover, with many individuals unable to complete their probationary year. This constant revolving door of employees has had a negative impact on morale and hinders succession planning for years to come.
THE COST OF LOSING EMPLOYEES
The failure to address the compensation disparity affecting Lompoc firefighters not only affects the quality of emergency services provided to the community but also has a significant financial impact on the City. The cost of recruitment, training, and equipping new firefighters to replace those who leave is substantial. The City ends up losing much more money in the long run than if they had just paid a competitive salary to retain those employees in the first place.
When a firefighter leaves the Department, there are several sunk costs that the City incurs. These costs include but are not limited to: hiring process costs; onboarding and fire academy costs; custom-sized personal protective equipment costs and class/training attendance costs. The more experience an employee has, the greater their marketability is with other departments, and the more significant their sunk costs. In other words, losing a five-year employee has greater detriment to the Department than a one-year employee. Employees with tenure greater than five years increase impact exponentially.
The City has already lost a significant amount of money in sunk costs alone. The common formula for estimating the lost cost of a departing employee is typically 1.5x their last salary. When it comes to executives or C-suite positions (fire chief, battalion chief), that formula increases to 2.25x their base salary.
The Association has compiled a list of previous employees over the last 15-years, estimated their departing salary and applied the formulas. The Association conservatively estimates that the City has spent over $3-million in sunk costs on employees they didn’t retain5. Furthermore, the loss of experienced firefighters leads to a spike in overtime costs due to firefighters having to fill the vacancies created by departing employees.
HOW DO OUR FIRE FIGHTERS COMPARE
When it comes to compensation, Lompoc firefighters have found themselves falling behind their counterparts in other county departments. According to data collected by both the City and the Association over the last three years (2021-2023), Lompoc firefighters are consistently behind the average pay rate at all ranks by at least 20%. Moreover, they are also behind the median pay rate by at least 21% over those same years.
This trend seems to be worsening with each passing year, further exacerbating the percentage gap between Lompoc firefighters and their peers. As noted previously, this disparity in pay is a primary factor in the Department’s recruitment and retention problem, as many firefighters are tempted to leave for better-paying jobs at neighboring departments.
Highlighting these points, the Association has created a series of charts that clearly show the discrepancy between Lompoc firefighters’ pay and those of their counterparts at nearby departments. These charts provide a visual representation of the data, making it easier to understand and interpret the extent of the pay disparities faced by Lompoc firefighters.
