What Firefighters earn in Orange County, CA
According to the latest federal wage data for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metropolitan area, the median pay for Firefighters in Orange County, CA is $98,050 a year, or $47.14 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $72,532 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Orange County, CA.
The mean wage is $108,860, which is 11.0% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 7,200 people working in this occupation across the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Orange County, CA has roughly 3,165,820 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Firefighters in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $58,710 a year ($28.23 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $150,760 or more ($72.48 an hour). That is a gap of $92,050 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $77,720 at the 25th percentile and $127,660 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.6 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Firefighters in Orange County, CA is $47.14. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $98,050, and the same salary is $8,171 a month before taxes or about $3,771 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $34.87 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Firefighters
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Firefighters this way: "Control and extinguish fires or respond to emergency situations where life, property, or the environment is at risk. Duties may include fire prevention, emergency medical service, hazardous material response, search and rescue, and disaster assistance."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Rescue survivors from burning buildings, accident sites, and water hazards"; "Dress with equipment such as fire-resistant clothing and breathing apparatus"; "Assess fires and situations and report conditions to superiors to receive instructions, using two-way radios"; "Move toward the source of a fire, using knowledge of types of fires, construction design, building materials, and physical layout of properties".
Job outlook for Firefighters
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 355,300 jobs in 2025 to 368,400 in 2035, a change of +3.7%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 26,800 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 7.5% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: postsecondary nondegree award. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: long-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $59,280 for this occupation; the Orange County, CA median of $98,050 is 65.4% above it.
How pay in Orange County, CA compares
Compared with the California average
Orange County, CA pays above the state benchmark. The California employment-weighted average for Firefighters is $89,491; the local median of $98,050 beats it by $8,559, or 9.6%. Within California, Orange County, CA already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Firefighters is $62,852 across the contiguous United States. At $98,050, Orange County, CA pays $35,198 more, which is 56.0% above that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Orange County, CA
Among the 633 occupations with published wages in Orange County, CA, Firefighters ranks number 183 by median pay, ahead of about 71% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Chief Executives at $234,290 a year, which is $136,240 more than the median for Firefighters.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $98,050 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $25,518 a year, which leaves $72,532, or $6,044 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $26 goes to taxes and $74 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 26.0%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $82,300. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 22% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $13,020, an effective 13.3% of gross pay, well below the 22% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $6,079 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $1,422. FICA totals $7,501, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in California
California income tax on this salary is $4,997 a year, or 5.1% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 38% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $416 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Orange County, CA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Orange County, CA show an average adjusted gross income of $120,090 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 16.7% across all filers. Filers in the $75,000 to under $100,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 9.4%, compared with the 13.3% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Orange County, CA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Orange County, CA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $72,532 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Orange County, CA is $2,610 a month, or $31,320 a year. A two-bedroom costs $3,057 a month. For Firefighters, a one-bedroom absorbs 43.2% of take-home pay and 31.9% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 3.5% of gross pay for Firefighters in Orange County, CA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using California residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $3,378 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $751, for $4,129 in total. Gasoline in California averages $4.42 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $2,047.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $40,931 a year, 56% of take-home pay. That leaves $31,601 a year, or $2,633 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 32.2% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Orange County, CA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Orange County, CA: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Orange County, CA, set beside the California and national medians.
Property taxes in Orange County, CA
Homeowners in Orange County, CA pay a median of $6,330 a year in real estate taxes, 24% above the California median of $5,124 and 103% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $962,600, the median tax bill is 0.66% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Firefighters median of $98,050, a tax bill of that size would equal 6.5% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Orange County, CA
Renters in Orange County, CA pay a median gross rent of $2,434 a month in the Census survey, 20% above the California median of $2,036. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $2,610 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $962,600, 31% above the California median of $734,700. Median household income is $116,289, 17% above the California median of $99,122, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 26.9% of that income.
Commuting in Orange County, CA
Workers in Orange County, CA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 26.7 minutes each way, 7% below the California average of 28.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.5 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 18.5% of workers in Orange County, CA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Firefighters afford to live in Orange County, CA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $98,050 that ceiling is $2,451 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,610 is $159 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $50.19 an hour; the median for Firefighters is $47.14, which is 6% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $34.87 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 17.3 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $3,057 a month means $1,529 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $12,978 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $44,579.
How fast you can save
At $2,633 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 4 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 8 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Firefighters pay in Orange County, CA
What is the hourly wage for Firefighters in Orange County, CA?
The median is $47.14 per hour, based on $98,050 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $28.23 at the 10th percentile to $72.48 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Firefighters in Orange County, CA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $98,050 becomes $72,532 a year. That is $6,044 a month, $2,790 every two weeks or $1,395 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Firefighters in Orange County, CA?
Total taxes are $25,518 a year, an effective rate of 26.0%: $13,020 federal income tax, $7,501 FICA and $4,997 California income tax.
Is pay for Firefighters in Orange County, CA above the California average?
Yes. The local median of $98,050 is +9.6% versus the California average of $89,491, a difference of $8,559 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Firefighters salary in Orange County, CA?
A one-bedroom costs $2,610 a month against take-home pay of $6,044, which is 43.2% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $2,451 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Firefighters in Orange County, CA?
About $2,633 a month ($31,601 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $40,931 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Orange County, CA at the 30% guideline?
$50.19 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $31,320 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Firefighters is $47.14.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the California rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.