Firefighter salary in North Carolina: $37,940 median.
Pay for firefighters across North Carolina at every point of the range, against the U.S., the states it borders and the state's metro areas.
Firefighters in North Carolina earned a median annual wage of $37,940 in May 2025, compared with $59,280 nationally, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey (SOC 33-2011). That is 36% below the U.S. median; the middle half of North Carolina workers in this occupation earned between $34,010 and $47,690.
- North Carolina median
- $37,940
- $18.24 an hour
- U.S. median
- $59,280
- -36% in North Carolina
- Rank among states
- 46 of 50
- states with a published median
- Employed in North Carolina
- 19,410
- location quotient 1.77
Advice For a pay conversation in North Carolina, the state median ($37,940) is the sourced middle of the market; the 25th–75th percentile band ($34,010–$47,690) is where half of the state's workers in this occupation fall. Experience, employer, metro and specialty move individual offers within and beyond that band.
North Carolina vs the U.S. at every point of the range
Data Annual wages at five points of the pay distribution, SOC 33-2011, BLS May 2025.
| Point in the pay range | North Carolina | United States | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $29,360 | $34,910 | -16% |
| 25th percentile | $34,010 | $44,490 | -24% |
| Median | $37,940 | $59,280 | -36% |
| 75th percentile | $47,690 | $77,250 | -38% |
| 90th percentile | $61,940 | $101,040 | -39% |
Data The local difference is larger at the top of the range than at the bottom (-16% at the 10th percentile, -39% at the 90th). Locally, the 90th-percentile wage is 2.11 times the 10th-percentile wage, versus 2.89 times nationally, so pay is less spread out than it is nationally.
How common the job is in North Carolina
Data BLS location quotient: the occupation's share of state employment divided by its share of U.S. employment.
Data The BLS location quotient for this occupation in North Carolina is 1.77, so it is more concentrated than nationally (1.00 = the same share as nationally). That is about 3.9 jobs per 1,000 jobs in the state.
North Carolina vs the states it borders
Data Same occupation, same BLS release. A higher median elsewhere is not a job offer; cost of living differs.
Where in North Carolina it pays most
Data Metropolitan statistical areas that include part of the state and pass TryHired's reliability rule (500+ jobs, employment PRSE ≤ 20%, mean-wage PRSE ≤ 10%, a published median and a non-degenerate wage distribution). Each is the whole BLS metro area, not a city.
Where firefighters earn the highest medians
Data Highest state medians among the 50 of the 50 states and DC with a published median, BLS May 2025. North Carolina ranks 46.
See every state on the national Firefighter salary page.
More for Firefighters
What the job is, skills, tools, pay and related roles.
Open →SalaryFirefighter salaryPay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.
Open →ResumeFirefighter resumeKeywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.
Open →Interview questionsFirefighter interview questionsQuestions with what they test, plus practice mode.
Open →Career changeFirefighter career changeWhere these skills transfer, with skill match and pay change.
Open →Free toolCheck your resumeParsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.
Open →Similar careers to explore
How this page is built
BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimates for North Carolina and national estimates for SOC 33-2011 (Firefighters). The pay ladder compares the same five published percentiles; the difference column is the local value minus the U.S. value, divided by the U.S. value. Ranks compare published state medians across the 50 states and DC. Employment counts people working in the occupation (excluding the self-employed), not job openings. BLS publishes sampling error for these estimates: the employment estimate has a relative standard error of 4.2%. Lower is more precise; BLS does not publish a standard error for the median itself. Searches this page answers include “firefighter salary nc”, “how much do firefighters make in nc”, “firefighter salary north carolina” (Ahrefs, U.S.).
- Cost of living: wages are not adjusted for local prices.
- Pay at a specific employer, in one city, or for self-employed workers.
- Local outlook: BLS projections are national.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 state and national estimates (2018 SOC), public domain.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.