CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Clarksville firefighters renewed their call for a raise outside city hall Thursday afternoon as the city council held their first budget work session of the year.
The firefighters say the city has one of the lowest starting salaries of the fire departments in Middle Tennessee at around $44,000 a year, despite serving one of the largest cities in the state.
“We’ve lost some guys, some young guys, over the past couple of years that have gone off to make more money and to different departments,” said Clarksville firefighter and union president Jesse Snyder. “Some of them have gone into complete different career paths altogether just because they couldn’t survive off what they were making.”
One firefighter said she even has to take government assistance to support her family.
“We’ve had to resort to food pantries and selling our items to pay our bills,” said Clarksville firefighter Makayla Hubbard. “I’ve tried to get a second job. I’ve had countless interviews, but when my schedule for the fire department comes up, every response was, ‘We can’t work with that schedule. We need reliable people to come in every day.’ My spouse had to drop out of school and return to work because we couldn’t pay.”
The proposed 2026 budget doesn’t include a raise for firefighters beyond the standard 2.5 percent raise that all city employees get.
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“It will be, for that starting firefighter, about $100 a month,” said Clarksville teacher Melissa Lindsay. “How does that help firefighter families like Mikayla’s, $100 a month? Does that keep her from having to look for a second job or to have her son drop out of college? Who are we as a city if we can’t do better? We’re supposed to be one of the best cities to live in in this entire country? Not for firefighters.”
The council discussed the issue at their meeting on May 29. Some council members expressed concern that raising firefighters’ pay would require them to raise taxes beyond the 15 cents they’re already considering.
“As soon as it came out in the paper that we were going to do a 15-cent increase, my phone started ringing off the wall,” said Ward 4 Council Member Tim Chandler.
The firefighters’ union said the city and state have approved billions of dollars in tax breaks for large corporations which they argue diverts funding from first responders.
“Our state and our city continue to invest in greedy corporations that pay low wages instead of investing in the people who make this city run, and we demand a change,” said vice president of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. “In 2024, our supermajority in the state legislature gave $1.5 billion in tax rebates to corporations and a lot of them are not even headquartered in the state of Tennessee.”
Council members also questioned the comparison between Clarksville firefighters’ pay and surrounding departments saying factors like insurance benefits and call volume also play a role.
“I just caution when you’re looking at other jurisdictions, look at the calls for service,” said Ward 2 Council Member Deanna McLaughlin. “Twelve fire stations, 365 days a year. If you sweep that across the number of calls for last year, it’s like 4.6 calls average in a 24-hour period for each fire station.”
WSMV reached out to the mayor’s office which declined to comment citing ongoing budget discussions. The city will need to approve a final 2026 budget by June 30.
