New York City Council votes to give themselves and other electeds an 18% raise

New York City elected officials are set to get their first pay raise in a decade after the City Council approved legislation Thursday to hike their salaries 18.2%.

The move comes nearly a month after a three-person independent panel convened by Mayor Zohran Mamdani recommended the legislative body do so, pointing to how the cost of living has significantly increased since electeds saw their last pay increase in 2016. Council members, citywide officials, borough presidents and district attorneys will all receive the 18.2% raise likely as soon as next month. Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin, however, have both said they would refuse any salary increase themselves. (Menin said she officially informed the council’s personnel services division Wednesday that she would indeed be declining any pay increase during her term.) 

The legislation, which was sponsored by City Council Member Nantasha Williams, passed Thursday with 42 members voting in its favor, and six against. That split was largely partisan, with conservative Democrats Phil Wong and Susan Zhuang joining Republicans Joann Ariola, Inna Vernikov, David Carr and Frank Morano against the pay raise. Menin was the lone member to abstain from the vote. 

After the last two mayors declined to convene a pay commission in their outgoing terms despite a city charter mandate to do so, things have proceeded rapidly under this City Council. The legislative body accepted all of the commission’s recommendations as is, with the exception of a provision for salaries to be automatically raised to account for changes in the cost of living, or at most 8.25%, if a future mayor refuses to call the panel to implement a pay increase. While council members initially included this in their legislation, it was quietly removed from the final version of the bill last week after good government groups raised concerns about the proposal.