The highest paid firefighter in Lombard is a lieutenant who earned $2,640 more than the fire chief in the last fiscal year, according to the village treasurer’s annual report.
Salaries for all village employees were made public last week and almost immediately triggered questions from police officials who noted a disparity in salaries of lieutenants for the Police and Fire Departments.
The report shows that one fire lieutenant earned $75,948 for the fiscal year that ended in May. In contrast, Fire Chief George Seagraves was paid $72,318. Two lieutenants were paid more than $65,000 each, according to the report, with the lowest paid lieutenant listed at $50,848.
Police officials questioned why the highest paid lieutenant in their department earned $54,553, while the average salary for the remaining lieutenants was $52,333.
Lieutenants within the police department are considered supervisors and receive no overtime, while fire lieutenants, though first-line supervisors, receive additional pay for extra duties.
“Our sergeants are the equivalent of Fire Department lieutenants, yet they earn significantly less,” said Steven Williams, deputy police chief. “And police lieutenants are the equivalent of battalion chiefs in fire departments.”
Williams has asked that village officials look into the pay differences.
Police sergeants receive overtime pay, and three earned salaries in excess of $50,000. The lowest pay for a sergeant was $47,741 and the highest was $53,052.
Overtime also added significantly to the salaries of two firefighters who are shown as receiving $51,485 and $52,023.
Williams questioned why both departments have lieutenants in charge of training while salaries are markedly different.
“This is not to denigrate their work, but something seems to be amiss when their lieutenants receive extra pay while ours do not,” Williams said.
Seagraves said two lieutenants are paid premiums, one for training duties and a second for coordinating emergency medical services.
“It’s cheaper for us to pay a lieutenant an additional $20,000 than to hire a training officer,” Seagraves said. “The same applies for coordinating paramedic services.”
Seagraves said that a lieutenant’s pay is equal to that of a police sergeant’s but is also based on a 52-hour workweek.
“The nature of our department is different, what with 24-hour work shifts that require two lieutenants per shift. Firefighters also take advantage of overtime opportunities when they are called back for a fire,” he said.
