Emergency Medical Technician Hourly Pay (2026 Data)
Advertised pay, starting pay, skills and experience from 5,134 US job postings by 759 employers. Data as of October 2026.
What US employers post for emergency medical technicians: advertised pay, the skills and experience they ask for, and the job titles they use, from 5,134 open job postings (October 2026).
- The median advertised pay for emergency medical technicians in US job postings is $26.00 an hour (1,058 postings from 190 employers, October 2026).
- The middle half of those postings offer $23.00 to $31.15 an hour.
- The skills that most set emergency medical technician postings apart are cpr, airway management, cardiac monitoring.
- Postings that state a minimum ask for a median of 2 years of experience.
Emergency Medical Technician job postings in the US, October 2026
- $26.00/hr
- Median advertised pay (1,058 postings)
- $23.00–$31.15
- Middle 50% of postings
- 5,134
- US job postings from 759 employers
- 2 years
- Median experience asked
How much does an emergency medical technician make an hour?
The median advertised pay is $26.00 an hour, from 1,058 US job postings by 190 employers that state pay. That is about $56,000 a year at 2,080 hours.
Advertised pay in 1,058 US emergency medical technician job postings: median $56,000 a year ($26.00 an hour), middle half $48,000 to $66,000.
- Median: $56,000 ($26.00/hr)
- 25th percentile: $48,000
- 75th percentile: $66,000
The figures as a table
| Annual pay | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| $20K–$30K | 0.1% |
| $30K–$40K | 3.9% |
| $40K–$50K | 26.2% |
| $50K–$60K | 30.2% |
| $60K–$70K | 20.4% |
| $70K–$80K | 11.8% |
| $80K–$90K | 5.1% |
| $90K–$100K | 0.4% |
| $100K–$110K | 0.9% |
Midpoint of each posting's pay range, hourly pay × 2,080 hours; at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026.
| Median | Middle 50% | Postings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Postings that state an hourly rate | $26.00 | $23.00–$31.15 | 597 |
| All pay postings, annualised | $56,000 | $48K–$66K | 1,058 |
For comparison, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the national median annual wage of Emergency Medical Technicians (29-2042) at $44,000 (May 2025). Postings advertise pay; the BLS measures what people earn, across all employers and levels.
What is the starting salary for an emergency medical technician?
Figure withheld: fewer than 250 US postings list pay. How we decide.
Highest-paying emergency medical technician jobs
Specializations with at least 250 postings that state pay.
| Specialization | Median pay | Postings with pay | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paramedic | $30.00/hr | 666 | 130 |
| EMT | $23.00/hr | 377 | 107 |
Skills employers ask for in emergency medical technician job postings
| Skill | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| Communication | 23% |
| Interpersonal skills | 17% |
| Professionalism | 9% |
| Customer service | 9% |
| Work independently | 6% |
| Attention to detail | 6% |
| Teamwork | 6% |
| Problem-solving | 5% |
| Cpr | 5% |
| Compassionate | 5% |
Skills named in the posting text; at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026. Methodology.
Skills that set emergency medical technicians apart
- Cpr31.1× as often as in all postings · 5%
Skills named in at least 5% of these postings and at least 3 times as often as in job postings overall.
Have a emergency medical technician job posting in front of you? See which of its skills your resume is missing.
What does an emergency medical technician do?
Employers post these jobs as Paramedic, EMT, EMT Basic, Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), EMT Paramedic and other titles. The largest specializations are Paramedic (62%), EMT (36%).
How much experience do you need to be an emergency medical technician?
Among 1,003 postings that state a minimum, the median is 2 years. 2% say 0 years and 47% ask for 1 year or less.
Minimum experience asked in 1,003 US emergency medical technician job postings: median 2 years, and 47% ask for 1 year or less.
The figures as a table
| Minimum experience asked | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| 0 yr | 4% |
| 1 yr | 44% |
| 2 yrs | 27% |
| 3-4 yrs | 24% |
| 5-7 yrs | 2% |
| 8-9 yrs | 0% |
| 10+ yrs | under 1% |
Postings that state a minimum (required or preferred); at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026.
We do not show a degree figure: in our checks, degree requirements in posting text were found too rarely to publish one. Why.
Full-time 79%, Part-time 21% of the 639 postings that state working hours.
Other names for an emergency medical technician: job titles employers use
| Job title | Employers using it |
|---|---|
| Paramedic | 500 (65.9%) |
| Emergency Medical Technician | 176 (23.2%) |
| EMT | 93 (12.2%) |
| EMT Basic | 39 (5.1%) |
| Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) | 35 (4.6%) |
| EMT Paramedic | 32 (4.2%) |
| Advanced EMT | 27 (3.6%) |
| Critical Care Paramedic | 26 (3.4%) |
| Flight Paramedic | 21 (2.8%) |
| Paramedic PRN | 20 (2.6%) |
| EMT-B | 18 (2.4%) |
| Advanced Emergency Medical Technician | 16 (2.1%) |
| Paramedic I | 15 (2.0%) |
| Part-Time Paramedic | 10 (1.3%) |
| Critical Care Transport Paramedic | 10 (1.3%) |
| Paramedic (Part-Time) | 9 (1.2%) |
| EMT Advanced | 9 (1.2%) |
| Emergency Department Paramedic | 9 (1.2%) |
| PRN Paramedic | 9 (1.2%) |
| Community Paramedic | 9 (1.2%) |
Titles read in our audit and used by at least 3 employers.
Emergency medical technician job titles compared
The titles people search for most, from the US job postings that use each exact title (October 2026).
| Job title | Open postings | Employers | Median pay | Median experience | Skills named most |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EMT | 306 | 93 | – | – | communication, interpersonal skills, professionalism |
| Paramedic | 2,296 | 500 | $30.12/hr | 1 year | communication, interpersonal skills, customer service |
| Flight Paramedic | 323 | 21 | – | – | – |
Paramedic vs EMT
| Paramedic | EMT | |
|---|---|---|
| Open US postings | 2,296 | 306 |
| Employers | 500 | 93 |
| Median advertised pay | $30.12/hr | – |
| Median experience asked | 1 year | – |
| Skills that stand out | – | – |
Emergency Medical Technician compared with similar careers
| Career | Median pay | Median experience | Postings | Shares N of top 25 skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency Medical Technician | $26.00/hr | 2 years | 5,134 | – |
| Respiratory Therapist | $41.50/hr | 1 year | 8,120 | 15 |
| Medical Assistant | $23.00/hr | 1 year | 22,021 | 14 |
| Firefighter | – | – | 956 | 18 |
| Patient Care Technician | $22.05/hr | 1 year | 8,483 | 10 |
Similar careers
| Career | Shares N of the top 25 skills | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Respiratory Therapist | 15 | $41.50/hr |
| Medical Assistant | 14 | $23.00/hr |
| Firefighter | 18 | – |
| Patient Care Technician | 10 | $22.05/hr |
| Licensed Practical Nurse | 14 | $32.65/hr |
| Nurse Anesthetist | 8 | $279K |
Applying for emergency medical technician jobs?
- Emergency medical technician resume examples: one-page examples for these roles
- Match your resume to a job: paste a posting and see the skills your resume is missing
- Check your resume: see how an applicant tracking system reads it
- Find emergency medical technician jobs: search open postings
Frequently asked questions
How much does an emergency medical technician make an hour?
How much does a Paramedic make?
Source and method
Open US job postings collected from employers' applicant tracking systems, de-duplicated, counted only when their job title was read in our audit. Shares count at most 20 postings per employer, and franchise locations of one brand count as one employer. Pay uses hourly and annual figures only; a figure is shown when leaving out the largest employer moves it by 10% or less. Every figure states its number of postings. Methodology and measured accuracy.
Accuracy check: we read 38 randomly chosen postings counted on this page in full; 36 of them were this career or a closely related one (October 2026).
Download the figures on this page (CSV): every number above with its count of postings. Aggregate figures are licensed CC BY 4.0; cite the page when you reuse them.