Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Public Health and Emergency

Abstract

Background: The field of emergency preparedness is often considered a limitedly recognized aspect of healthcare; however, it serves an integral component of patient and worker safety. While an important field, there is limited data focused on the field pertaining to salaries of workers, resources utilized and produced, and the typical working environment. The purpose of this project was to assess salary and other demographic markers of healthcare emergency preparedness professionals in the United States.

Methods: The project compared salary, full-time equivalent levels, preparedness program budgets, and respondent demographic markers across the country via a survey that was administered for a period of six weeks in the summer of 2024. The survey was administered through Research Electronic Data Capture (RedCap) and distributed through the Association of Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Professionals (AHEPP) public website and social media outlets. The target population was U.S.-based healthcare emergency management professionals. The data from this study focused on the tax year 2023 and was also compared to previous survey results, which gave preliminary findings from the tax year 2020, and the data that is available through the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Descriptive analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were conducted with an alpha value of 0.05 using SPSS.

Results: There was a total of 206 responses, of which 148 were considered complete, with partially complete responses being included in analysis. The mean salary of respondents was $98,374.66 with a range of $45 to $280,000. While there were many noteworthy findings, it is important to consider that a worker’s education level was positively correlated with one’s salary potential (P=0.01). Additionally, as someone works with higher-level trauma centers, there was an associated increase in salary opportunity (P=0.006).

Conclusions: This survey-based study offers a unique set of data serving to start the rectification of the paucity of information publicly available regarding the salaries of emergency preparedness professionals. While these are just a few of the important findings of the study, the authors believe that professionals within the field will be able to utilize the findings herein in future salary negotiations or to place themselves in a better job market to fit their needs both with salary as well as workload in mind.

DOI

10.21037/jphe-25-25

Publication Date

6-25-2026

Keywords

Salary, emergency preparedness, full-time equivalents (FTEs)

ISSN

2520-0054

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