Hiring a public safety telecommunicator in Worcester, MA

Employers in the Worcester, MA area pay public safety telecommunicators a median of $58,850, with the middle half of the market between $50,980 and $64,600. Worcester residents working in office and administrative support occupations report a median of $40,181, which is 32% below what the metro pays for this role.

What does a public safety telecommunicator earn here?

Place of work

What employers pay

Annual wages paid by employers in the Worcester, MA area. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
25th percentile	$50,980
Median	$58,850
75th percentile	$64,600

Half of public safety telecommunicators in this area earn between $50,980 and $64,600. A band set below $50,980 competes for the bottom quarter of the market.

Place of residence

What Worcester residents earn

$40,181

Median earnings of Worcester residents working in office and administrative support occupations, 10,567 people. Census ACS 5-year 2023, tables S2401 and B24011. Where people live, not where they work, so it is not the same measurement as the wages beside it.

The 32% figure is not a pay gap. ACS counts the civilian employed population 16 and over, part-time and part-year work included; OEWS counts wage-and-salary jobs only. The two populations differ, so read this number against other cities rather than as a shortfall: the same definitional difference applies to every city equally, which is what makes a city-to-city reading sound.

The role pays well above the local residential norm, which usually means you can hire from inside Worcester rather than competing for commuters.

What does the role actually involve?

Core tasks

Provide emergency medical instructions to callers.
Question callers to determine their locations and the nature of their problems to determine type of response needed.
Determine response requirements and relative priorities of situations, and dispatch units in accordance with established procedures.
Receive incoming telephone or alarm system calls regarding emergency and non-emergency police and fire service, emergency ambulance service, information, and after-hours calls for departments within a city.
Relay information and messages to and from emergency sites, to law enforcement agencies, and to all other individuals or groups requiring notification.

O*NET 29.1, task statements for SOC 43-5031.

Tools and technologies in demand

Microsoft Office software, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Word, SAP software.

O*NET 29.1, flagged in demand or hot for this occupation. Useful as a screen, not as a checklist.

Is the talent actually in Worcester?

This is a job zone two: some preparation needed occupation. These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

It does not require a degree, which widens the pool considerably. For context, 34.1% of Worcester adults hold one. Census ACS 5-year 2023, table S1501.

The average Worcester commute runs 25.1 minutes, which is roughly how far your catchment reaches before candidates start saying no. 10.7% already work from home, so a fully onsite requirement here is competing against that.

How often do these jobs turn over?

In Worcester County, administrative and support services employs 19,326 and turns over 18.1% a quarter, with 6,729 hires against 7,022 separations. Average earnings in that industry run $3,876 a month. Census LEHD Quarterly Workforce Indicators, 2024 Q1, NAICS 56.

That figure covers every occupation in the industry, not this role alone, so read it as the local churn rate rather than as a number about public safety telecommunicators. It still tells you what you are hiring into: a high-churn market, where speed matters more than a perfect fit.

What does the search cost?

The fee is set by the seniority of the role, never by salary and never by location. Across all six tiers it runs $6,240 to $54,340 per search. A contingency firm hiring at this role's median would bill roughly $11,770 to $17,655 on the first year salary alone.

One owner runs the search from market map to signed offer. Searches typically fill in 23 to 35 days, which is a typical window rather than a promise, and the replacement guarantee runs 45 days at 50% off.

Price this search

Eight questions about the role. Your tier range appears on screen.

Hiring a public safety telecommunicator somewhere else?

Same role, different market. The wage band moves with the metro.

Other office and administrative support roles in Worcester

Worcester is the 2th largest of 2 Massachusetts cities in this dataset.