ABSTRACT
Historically, the policy of maintaining pay parity between fire fighters and police has been an established fact in many cities throughout the United States. In Los Angeles, pay parity has existed for almost forty years, while in Detroit, this method of compensating police and fire fighters has prevailed since 1907 [1, p. 77]. In many situations, the long tradition of parity has been the result of wage and salary judgments made by city administrators who felt that the jobs were similar. Another reason that the pay level of the two public safety services has been the same is because police work and fire fighting have been closely linked in the public mind as occupations that provide essential services and respond to community emergencies.
