GRAINGER COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) -- They are the people in the ambulances who answer the calls when lives are on the line, but EMTs in Grainger County are paid so little that the County Mayor had to give them an emergency raise just to avoid violating the minimum wage law.

They work long hours on a very stressful job, but the men and women who are called on to be lifesavers say they barely make enough to live on.

When Grainger County EMT Matt Stapelton gets in the ambulance, he knows someone's life may literally be in his hands."

But when Matt gets his paycheck, he's paid the federal minimum wage, six dollars and fifty-five cents per hour.

Stapleton says, "It's kind of disappointing and sad to know that I could go to a gas station or go to Pizza Plus down the road and make a dollar to a dollar and a quarter more."

It's a life of 24-hour shifts, spent away from home. It's a job that brings people face to face with the dead and the dying.

Paramedic Tom Gilliland says, "These are a bunch of good kids that work here, and they're working under hard circumstances -- equipment's not what it should be, and they're not getting paid near what they're worth."

When the federal minimum wage went up in July, the County Mayor gave EMTs an emergency raise of two cents per hour to avoid violating labor laws. Now it's up to the Grainger County Commission to decide whether they'll get another raise -- perhaps the three percent that all county employees are asking for.

Grainger County Mayor Mark Hipsher says, "It's going to be a matter of public safety. If we stay the lowest paid in the area, it's going to get hard to get employees."

Stapleton says he didn't get into this work for the money, but supporting his family means working in neighboring counties on days off. He says Hamblen County pays over nine dollars per hour for the same work, Jefferson Count over ten.

Stapelton says, “People won't truly understand and appreciate us until they need us until something bad enough happens."

The County Commission will meet Sept. 8 to discuss the budget and see what, if any, further raises they'll approve.

The EMTs say they'd like to think they, and all county employees, will get at least a 3 percent raise, but they fear even that may be a tough sell.