Southern California special district firefighter earns nearly $300,000 … in overtime

So we told you about the city firefighter who made more than $500,000 in overtime.

Then we told you about the county firefighter who made more than $400,000 in overtime.

And today we tell you about the special district firefighter who made more than $290,000 in overtime. (Starts to look cheap in comparison, right?)

The crown for “California’s Most Prolific Overtime Earner Among 164,000+ Special District Employees” for 2022 goes to a captain with the Orange County Fire Authority. His overtime pay ($290,399) was more than twice his regular pay ($127,306), with total wages of $451,010, according to data from the state controller.

That does not include what the Fire Authority pays for his health plan and retirement benefits, which totaled another $75,162 (for total compensation of $526,172).

Next up on the statewide special district “oodles of overtime” list was a Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District captain, whose overtime pay ($277,576) was also more than twice his regular pay ($122,325), with total wages of $435,780.

No. 3 statewide: another Orange County Fire Authority captain ($277,499 overtime, $124,877 regular pay, total wages of $444,110).

Surprise! No. 4 broke the firefighting mold — a staff nurse in Alameda County’s Washington Township Health Care District (overtime of $272,622, regular pay of $224,214, total wages of $499,620) — but firefighting popped right back with No. 5, with Riverside County’s Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s chief (overtime of $264,578, regular pay of $132,525, total wages of $463,680).

If someone had told me all this, I might have had a slightly different career trajectory. And to answer the question that comes up after each overtime series installment: No, overtime does not spike pension pay.

You can see the entire spreadsheet on statewide special district pay here.