Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists Salary and Pay
How much do Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists make?
Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists pay a median of $52,380 a year in the BLS May 2024 survey, with a mean of $61,820 across 2,780 counted jobs. Half of all workers in the occupation earn between $41,000 and $77,780.
What Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists actually pay, from the federal wage survey: a $52,380 median, the full percentile ladder, every state's table, and the metros where the jobs and the money sit, on one page.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Gross pay only, before taxes and benefits. The picker starts at this occupation's median ($52,380); the custom box accepts any annual figure, which is how you price an offer letter against the ladder below.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $33,590 | $16.15 |
| 25th percentile | $41,000 | $19.71 |
| Median (50th) | $52,380 | $25.19 |
| 75th percentile | $77,780 | $37.39 |
| 90th percentile | $100,450 | $48.29 |
Read the ladder vertically: each row is the wage of the Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists worker at that point in the distribution, so $77,780 at the 75th percentile means three quarters of the occupation earns less. Figures BLS cannot publish appear as n/p, and its top code prints as $239,200+.
Employment and concentration
BLS counted 2,780 Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists jobs in May 2024, which is 0.00% of all U.S. employment in the survey. Work is most concentrated in Oklahoma, where the location quotient is 10.94, meaning the occupation holds 10.94 times its national share of local jobs. Georgia employs the most people outright, 350 of them, and the three largest state employers together account for 34.9% of the national total.
The spread matters as much as the center. Earners at the 90th percentile make $100,450, which is 3.0 times the $33,590 at the 10th, a difference of $66,860 annually. Because the mean wage ($61,820) sits above the median ($52,380), a typical offer should be judged against the median and the 25th to 75th percentile band, not the mean.
Pay by state
California posts the highest median annual wage in the state table at $90,290, and Georgia the largest headcount. The full table, sorted by employment:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 350 | 0.1 | 4.06 | $48,390 | $46,170 |
| Oklahoma | 330 | 0.2 | 10.94 | $77,680 | $79,350 |
| California | 290 | 0.0 | 0.88 | $99,770 | $90,290 |
| Colorado | 190 | 0.1 | 3.70 | $61,750 | $53,500 |
| Arkansas | 140 | 0.1 | 6.08 | $41,280 | $42,260 |
| New Jersey | 130 | 0.0 | 1.74 | $66,020 | $57,950 |
| Oregon | 110 | 0.1 | 3.01 | $71,730 | $70,910 |
| Mississippi | 90 | 0.1 | 4.10 | $29,900 | $26,460 |
| Florida | 70 | 0.0 | 0.39 | $56,970 | $48,900 |
| Louisiana | 70 | 0.0 | 1.90 | $73,750 | $74,650 |
| Maine | 60 | 0.1 | 5.08 | $64,690 | $66,310 |
| Utah | 60 | 0.0 | 1.87 | $80,080 | $77,480 |
| Alabama | 40 | 0.0 | 1.07 | $39,520 | $34,920 |
| Washington | n/p | n/p | n/p | $49,400 | $51,370 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists stands number 793 by employment and number 485 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Protective Service Occupations, the group median wage is $58,610 across 24 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 11% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 3,654,920 jobs. In 8 of the 14 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $52,380, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.
Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ is the largest metro employer with 100 jobs, 3.6% of the national total. The first table ranks metros by employment; the second ranks them by mean pay among metros with at least 500 jobs in the occupation, because a three-person metro can top a pay table by accident.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 100 | $65,630 | $61,820 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 80 | $66,680 | $48,800 |
| Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | 60 | $64,680 | $53,500 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 60 | $99,230 | $99,600 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 40 | $49,970 | $48,190 |
| Fort Collins-Loveland, CO | 40 | $55,490 | $45,100 |
| Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR | 40 | $43,880 | $46,450 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 40 | $105,500 | $108,400 |
| Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | 40 | $81,880 | $77,480 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 40 | $121,370 | $122,760 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
The median Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists paycheck, gross, is $2,015 every two weeks on an annual $52,380, which is $4,365 a month and $1,007 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($41,000) to the 75th ($77,780) is worth $36,780 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. Gross is a starting point, not a budget: the paycheck calculator nets it down by state, an offer comparison lives in the salary calculator, and the raise vs inflation calculator separates a real raise from a nominal one.
To place a real offer: a salary of $57,618 would sit between the median ($52,380) and the 75th percentile ($77,780), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $41,000, is $11,380 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Protective Service Occupations
Pay for the neighboring roles in the same BLS major group: First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers, First-Line Supervisors of Correctional Officers, Transportation Security Screeners, Private Detectives and Investigators, First-Line Supervisors of Protective Service Workers, All Other, Bailiffs. The full directory is on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists make an hour?
The median hourly wage is $25.19, and the mean hourly wage is $29.72, from the May 2024 OEWS estimates. Annual figures for Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists use the survey's 2,080-hour year where a conversion is needed, which is how the $52,380 annual median and the hourly figures reconcile.
Which state pays Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists the most?
California, with a median annual wage of $90,290 across 290 jobs. The full state table on this page ranks every publishing state by employment and shows median and mean side by side.
How big is the Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists workforce?
2,780 wage and salary workers in May 2024, 0.00% of U.S. employment in the survey. Employment concentrates most in Oklahoma by location quotient (10.94).
How current is this Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists salary data?
These are the May 2024 OEWS estimates behind the $52,380 median and the 2,780 job count on this page, released by BLS on April 2, 2025 and downloaded on November 5, 2026. OEWS is an employer survey, so those figures describe wages actually paid in this occupation, not advertised ranges.