Paramedic Salary in Wisconsin 2026,
$59,710 Median | BLS Data by City

The published figure is $59,710 a year, or $28.71 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 29-2043, with a band from $46,530 at the 10th percentile to $75,760 at the 90th. That is 1.5% below the national median of $60,600, though every published Wisconsin metro pays several thousand dollars above the state median.

Sheboygan, at $68,810, then Racine-Mount Pleasant $65,710, Kenosha $65,350, Green Bay $64,810 and Janesville-Beloit $64,210. Milwaukee-Waukesha does not appear in the published table for this occupation, and the metros that do are lakeshore and southern Wisconsin cities running full-time EMS on municipal pay scales.

Complete an approved paramedic programme and examination, then obtain a licence from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Emergency Medical Services Section. Practice is authorised under the medical director of a licensed EMS service, and the operating scope follows that service's approved protocols rather than one statewide list.

No. National Registry certification is the customary examination route, but the credential that authorises practice in Wisconsin is the licence issued by the DHS Emergency Medical Services Section, and practice additionally requires affiliation with a licensed service and authorisation under its medical director. A paramedic moving into Wisconsin needs the state licence regardless of what certifications they hold.

Because the state median includes paid-on-call, part-time and combination-service positions across rural Wisconsin, where a paramedic may not hold a full-time job at all. The metro figures of $64,210 to $68,810 describe full-time municipal and hospital-based employment on published scales, and they are the honest reference for anyone planning a career rather than volunteering locally.

BLS publishes a metro figure only where the estimate meets its reliability standards for that occupation and area, and with just 1,990 paramedics counted statewide the row is thin enough that not every Wisconsin metro clears the bar. There is a second effect worth naming: in fire-based systems, personnel employed as firefighter-paramedics are often reported on firefighter rows rather than this one, which thins the paramedic count precisely in the largest metropolitan fire departments. The published table — Sheboygan, Racine-Mount Pleasant, Kenosha, Green Bay, Janesville-Beloit — should therefore be read as the areas where paramedic-classified employment is large enough to measure, not as a ranking of all Wisconsin EMS employers.

It is straight-time, and it averages two employment models. BLS excludes overtime premium, and full-time Wisconsin EMS scheduling routinely produces hours beyond the base week, so actual gross earnings for a full-time paramedic here commonly exceed the annualised figure. Meanwhile the $46,530 tenth percentile largely reflects paid-on-call and part-time rural positions rather than underpaid full-time work. Anyone benchmarking a full-time offer should read from the $49,470 twenty-fifth percentile upward and use the metro medians as the practical guide.

Employer model first: a full-time municipal fire-based or third-service agency pays on a published scale with longevity steps that a private transport operator generally cannot match, and that difference is most of the gap between the $59,710 median and the $71,030 seventy-fifth percentile. Second, critical-care and interfacility transport work run out of the state's large regional health systems, which pays above field rates. Third, graded roles — field training officer, quality assurance, EMS education and shift supervision — which make up the $75,760 ninetieth percentile and are competed for through internal postings.