Honesty here in California. Easily yes to both with a pension. I cleared well over $100,000 my second year as a firefighter/paramedic and most our captains make $300,000 with OT. That’s with out gaming the system.

All of our pay is public info at transparent California.com. Look at various fire depts to see what many guys doing this make. It was the number factor that made me switch from airlines to this career, and of course stability.