Since employees start over at step one when they are promoted, going from firefighter to lieutenant results in a loss of about $1.50 per hour, and lieutenant to captain results in a loss of about 50 cents per hour. But other departments have the same problem, specifically in the Police Department and the Water and the Community Appearance departments. In the Water and Sewer Board, you have many different levels of work, which makes it more likely that you will have promotion problems. That?s why it gets very expensive to fix all of the departments of the city at the same time. The cost depends on the size of the department.