A version of the following article appeared in the Friday, May 29, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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As Mecklenburg County boosts worker pay, office staff could soon make more than some workers in Medic ambulances
The starting pay for a Medic EMT is $21 an hour. Mecklenburg County’s manager has recommended raising the minimum wage for county workers from $20 to $25.53 an hour, but Medic employees are not included in that because it operates as a separate agency. (Charlotte Ledger file photo)
by Michelle Crouch
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote on Mecklenburg County’s $2.6B budget, county commissioners spent several hours on Thursday grappling with an uncomfortable reality:
Under County Manager Michael Bryant’s budget proposal, the lowest-paid county office workers would make substantially more than entry-level ambulance workers responding to shootings, overdoses and strokes.
The gap is a result of the county’s push to raise its minimum wage from $20 to $25.53 an hour, a 28% raise to about $53,000 a year. Employees of Medic, the county’s ambulance service, were not included because it operates as a separate agency, Bryant said, even though the county funds roughly a quarter of its budget.
Starting pay for a Medic EMT is $21 an hour, or $43,701 annually.
The pay gap has sparked frustration among EMTs and paramedics, who have been emailing county commissioners.
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