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Role hub · Paramedics

Paramedic: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Oct 24, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of paramedics earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$60,600
Hourly
$29.13
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Paramedics administer basic or advanced emergency medical care and assess injuries and illnesses. The median pay is $60,600 a year ($29.13 an hour) (BLS, May 2025).

Median pay
$60,600
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
100,610
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 3 of 5
medium preparation
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The work

What paramedics do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Perform emergency cardiac care, such as cardioversion and manual defibrillation.
  2. Perform emergency invasive intervention before delivering patient to an acute care facility.
  3. Coordinate work with other emergency medical team members or police or fire department personnel.
  4. Assess nature and extent of illness or injury to establish and prioritize medical procedures.
  5. Comfort and reassure patients.
  6. Administer first aid treatment or life support care to sick or injured persons in prehospital settings.
  7. Operate equipment, such as electrocardiograms (EKGs), external defibrillators, or bag valve mask resuscitators, in advanced life support environments.
  8. Perform emergency pharmacological interventions.
Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Service OrientationcoreSocial PerceptivenesscoreCoordinationcoreCritical ThinkingActive ListeningReading ComprehensionSpeakingMonitoringJudgment and Decision Making

Knowledge areas: Medicine and Dentistry, English Language, Public Safety and Security, Customer and Personal Service, Biology, Education and Training.

Tools and technology

Software paramedics use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • MEDITECH softwareMedical softwareHot technology
  • eClinicalWorks EHR softwareMedical softwareHot technology
  • EpocratesInformation retrieval or search software
  • HyperToxInformation retrieval or search software
  • Informed EMS Field GuideInformation retrieval or search software
  • Iterum eMedicInformation retrieval or search software
  • MedDataSolutions Regist*rMedical software
  • Medical Wizards ER & ICU ToolBoxInformation retrieval or search software
  • Medical Wizards ER SuiteInformation retrieval or search software
  • Medical Wizards Paramedics ToolBoxInformation retrieval or search software
  • Mosby's Drug ConsultInformation retrieval or search software
  • PEPID EMSInformation retrieval or search software

Also called: Critical Care Paramedic, Firefighter Paramedic, First Responder, Flight Paramedic.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).