The Greene County supervisors at their Oct. 20 meeting discussed wage increases for fulltime employees of Greene County Ambulance. In recent months the ambulance service has lost employees due to low wages, causing the service to be unable to provide patients transfers from Greene County Medical Center as agreed with the county took over the ambulance service.
Wages are currently $14.20 to $15.36/hour depending on years of experience for EMTs; $15 to $20/hour depending on years of experience for advanced EMTs; and $23.47 for paramedics. A consultant who worked with the medical center and the ambulance service to on ways to remedy the staff shortage recommended increasing hourly wages to $24 for EMTs, $26 for advanced EMTs, and $28 for paramedics.
Ambulance director Michelle Madson said she verified with three former employees that they left the Greene County service for better wages. Still, she said wages could be $2 less than the consultant proposed. “That would benefit the county and still make the ambulance service here be competitive with the neighbors,” she said. She then proposed $22.50, $24.50, and $26.50 as hourly wages.
Madson said the three former employees would consider returning if wages were increased to the amounts she suggested.
Supervisor Dan Benitz said, “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot if we don’t have a good, competitive wage… If we go half-way, another year we’re going to be in the same boat… I’d like to quit being mediocre.”
The ambulance service is currently paying a lot of overtime wages and an amount auditor Billie Jo Hoskins called “out of control.” She said a decrease in overtime would offset an increase in hourly wages.
“I think we’re dealing with peoples’ lives in emergency situations. I think we need to attract good people,” Benitz said. He said employees should earn a wage “commensurate with the responsibilities they have.”
Supervisor Joe Gannon suggested that a higher wage would incentivize new hires.
Board chair John Muir said that if wages aren’t adjusted, “we know where we’re at.”
The item was on the agenda for discussion. The board anticipates making a decision at the Oct. 27 meeting.
In other business, the board approved the 2026 employee health insurance benefit renewal with a 5 percent decrease in individual premiums paid by employees. Individual stop loss deductibles will increase from $80,000 to $90,000. The stop loss deductible is paid by the county before the claim goes to the insurance company. The county’s insurance fund (from which the stop loss is paid) has grown to $2.6 million since the county began that self-insurance program. Muir called the decrease in premiums “a reward for everybody.” Benitz reported that masonry walls at the new jail will go up this week and that concrete floors are done. He said parking and driveways will be poured this week.
