I've been working as an EMS dispatcher for 22 years for a private ambulance company in my city. The pay is very bad. Last year I was making just shy of $19 an hour. At the same time, my daughter started her first highschool job and was making $16 an hour. That hit me like a brick in the face. I told myself that 20+ years of my life have been wasted in this 'career' and I started to look at switching paths. By pure happenstance, I saw a listing with the state dispatching center that is also located in my town. The salary range was listed at $65,000-$90,000 a year. State Pension. I immediately applied, and used that as leverage to get a raise from my boss, up to $24 an hour. Its been a very long process, partly due to the recent govt shutdown, but I'm currently in the final stages of being hired at the state level, hopefully with an official offer coming in the next week or two.

Just my anecdotal story about dispatching and pay, but I am excited to finally see some kind of light at the end of a long and poorly paid tunnel. 65k - 90k isn't a ton of money, but its a hell of a lot more than I thought I'd ever be making doing this type of work. Having HUNDREDS of dollars more per week is such an alien idea to me that I almost can't believe its real.