Ambulance Drivers and Attendants, Except Emergency Medical Technicians
SOC 53-3011 · 2024-2034
Drive ambulance or assist ambulance driver in transporting sick, injured, or convalescent persons. Assist in lifting patients.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $36,941per year
- Projected openings
- 1,770
- Projected change
- +7.1%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Service Orientation
- Critical Thinking
- Active Listening
- Reading Comprehension
- Speaking
- Social Perceptiveness
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $38,563 | 180 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $37,902 | 320 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $35,071
- A quarter earn under
- $35,756
- Half earn under
- $36,941
- Three quarters earn under
- $40,232
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $46,813
A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| Occupation | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency Medical Technicians | $47,678 | 19,450 | +15% |
| Paramedics | $76,678 | 3,120 | +15.7% |
| Orderlies | $51,184 | 7,770 | +10% |
| Nursing Assistants | $48,836 | 172,680 | +10.3% |
| Medical Assistants | $50,918 | 175,850 | +22.7% |
| Public Safety Telecommunicators | $82,016 | 8,940 | +5.9% |
Programs that train for this job — 3
Emergency Medical Technician
Valley ROP · Sanger · $2,800
Emergency Medical Services Pre-Apprenticeship
Columbia College · Sonora · $2,714
Basic Life Support (BLS) - Renewal Certification Training. BPPE Approved
Project Heartbeat · Oakland · $97