EMT Salary in Mississippi 2026,
$36,630 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $36,630 a year, or $17.61 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $29,120 and $39,100 and a full range of $26,760 to $48,290. That is 17.6% below the $44,470 national median, and only the state's 90th percentile clears the national figure.

Gulfport-Biloxi at $37,440, but only barely — Hattiesburg at $37,390 and Jackson at $36,800 are within about six hundred dollars. Only three metros are published for this occupation, and they are effectively identical, which means relocating within Mississippi will not change your pay in this role.

Through the State Department of Health's Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. You complete an approved EMT course, obtain National Registry certification and apply to the bureau for licensure, with scope of practice defined at state level and continuing education required for renewal. The same bureau licenses advanced EMTs and paramedics, so the progression stays within one system.

Financially the case is strong. This band tops out at $48,290 and its 75th percentile is more than five thousand dollars below the national EMT median, so the ceiling is low and arrives early. Paramedic training is a substantial commitment following EMT experience, but it opens a materially higher band and access to critical care transport and supervisory roles. Mississippi licenses both through the same Bureau of Emergency Medical Services.

The $26,760 tenth percentile is the lowest entry figure in this entire batch, and it reflects part-time, rural county and volunteer-supplemented arrangements being counted in an annual wage series alongside full-time metropolitan posts. Mississippi's rural ambulance coverage depends heavily on services that cannot fund full-time paid staffing. A full-time Mississippi EMT with a county or private service should read the range from the 25th percentile upward as the realistic market.

That every bit of the variation in this occupation comes from something other than location. Gulfport-Biloxi, Hattiesburg and Jackson are effectively identical at around thirty-seven thousand dollars, while the band runs from $26,760 to $48,290. What accounts for the difference is employer type — a hospital-based or larger county service against a small rural operation — hours worked, since EMS runs on long shifts with routine overtime, and responsibility, with field training and specialty transport roles at the top. For someone planning a career here, that means the questions to ask at interview are about the service's funding, the shift pattern and the overtime availability, not about the town.

Hours, employer type and an incomplete picture of the state. EMS schedules produce routine overtime that an annual median blends without separating, and the figure omits entirely the volunteer and part-paid coverage that carries much of rural Mississippi. Only three metros are published in a largely rural state, so most of the workforce is outside them. And with about 1,390 paid EMTs statewide, the percentile ladder should be read as a shape rather than a precise scale.

Employer type and hours, since geography does nothing. A hospital-based or larger county service pays above a small rural operation. Field training officer responsibility and specialty transport support roles reach the $39,100 seventy-fifth percentile, and overtime availability accounts for much of the distance to the $48,290 ninetieth. But the structural answer, in a band whose 75th percentile sits five thousand dollars below the national median for the occupation, is the paramedic programme — and, for those willing to consider it, that Mississippi's neighbouring states pay materially more for the same licence.