Todd M. Schneider
President and Chief Executive Officer at Cintas
Thank you, Paul. We are pleased with our start to fiscal 2022. First quarter, total revenue grew 8.6% and diluted earnings per share or EPS grew 11.9%. Every business whether goods producing or services providing has a need for image, safety, cleanliness or compliance. Every business has a need Cintas can fulfill to help get them ready for the workday.
Our financial results are indicative of our strong value proposition and vast total addressable market. Uniform Rental and Facility Services operating segment revenue was $1.51 billion compared to $1.39 billion last year. Organic revenue growth was 8.2%. We expected solid growth over year prior period in which the economy was in a weakened state. We also made solid progress on a sequential basis and in total revenue grew stronger than anticipated. We continued to make measured investments to support our growth. Labor market remains challenging.
US still hasn't recovered $5.3 million pre-pandemic charts. This represents an opportunity for us. Most of our customers are open. However, most are not operating at the same capacity and employment levels as pre-COVID. We are seeing inflationary signs including higher costs of freight, energy, wages and supplies. We continue to take actions to minimize the impacts. These include reviewing and challenging our processes and procedures, reduce efficiencies and reduce costs and thoughtfully implementing increases to the pricing of certain products and services in response to higher operational costs.
Our first aid and safety services operating segment revenue for first quarter was $199.1 million compared to $204.5 million last year. First quarter revenue was up against a very difficult comparison and last year's first quarter in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, personal protective equipment or PPE sales were surging, propelling the business to grow organic revenue over 17%. At that time PPE comprise an outsized percentage of first aid and safety services revenue mix.
As discussed on previous earnings calls, the amount of PPE has declined as COVID case counts have fallen from peak levels. However, PPE remains a larger percentage of the revenue mix than it was pre-COVID. Over the same period of time, the recurring first aid cabinet service business revenue has increased. We welcome the shift in mix, because first aid cabinet service business is historically higher profit margin business and more consistent.
Our fire protection services and uniform direct sale businesses are reported in the all other segment. All other revenue was $189.7 million compared to $147.7 million last year. The fire business' organic revenue growth rate was 17.8% and the uniform direct sale business growth rate was 68%. Both businesses benefited in part from increased activity in a period of reduced COVID case counts.
Regarding our balance sheet and cash flow our financial position remains strong. Recently, on September 15 we paid shareholders $98.8 million in quarterly dividends. The amount per share of common stock paid of $0.95 cents represents a 26.7% increase of the Company's previous quarterly dividend. We continue to allocate capital to improve shareholder return. I'm proud of the execution of our employees, whom we call partners. They continue to navigate an unsettled environment by focusing on our customers.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues of course fueled recently by the surge of the Delta variant. We remain well positioned headed into the fall and winter months to provide potentially lifesaving items such as face masks and gloves, provide hygienically clean garments such as healthcare scrubs and isolation gowns and conduct services including hand sanitizer dispensing and sanitizing spray services.
Now before turning the call over to Mike I want to highlight a recent announcement of our ambition to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Cintas was founded on a sustainable business model. Our corporate culture is based on doing what's right and challenging ourselves to improve. We view our ambition to achieve this objective as a natural extension, also as part of our steadfast commitment to corporate responsibility, we will soon issue a more robust environmental, social and governance report. We are committed to protecting the environment, enhancing humanity and maintaining accountability.
I will now turn the call over to Mike.