Here's an FLSA detail that works in EMS's favor: the extended §207(k) work periods that delay overtime for firefighters generally apply to EMS crews only when they're cross-trained fire personnel of a fire department. Private ambulance services, hospital-based EMS, and third-service municipal agencies owe time-and-a-half past 40 hours in a week, period. On 12-hour rotations and 24-hour cars with mandatory holdover, that threshold falls constantly.
A medic at $24/hour running an average of 12 overtime hours a week earns roughly $21,600 in annual time-and-a-half wages — and the premium third, about $7,200, is now deductible from federal taxable income, up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint). Sleep-time agreements on 24-hour shifts complicate the hour count (employers can exclude up to 8 sleep hours under specific conditions), which is why the paid-overtime line on your stubs is the practical starting number.
The multi-employer pattern common in EMS — a full-time service plus PRN shifts elsewhere — counts per employer: each service's overtime qualifies against its own 40-hour weeks, and the premiums add up on your return. What never combines is hours across unrelated employers to trigger overtime that neither owed. If your 2025 return skipped the deduction, a 1040-X recovers it, and it runs through 2028.