Aldermen, mayor and other Chicago officials set for another, albeit smaller, pay bump

One year after some City Council members accepted a nearly 10% pay hike that roiled Chicago politics amid a citywide election, aldermen are slated to decide later this month whether to forgo another automatic raise tied to inflation.

This time around, the salary bump would be far smaller: 2.24%, according to a memo from the city’s budget office obtained by the Chicago Tribune. City Council members have until the end of Sept. 15 to reject the raise, or else it will automatically be applied to their salaries next year, the budget office informed them last month.

In 2024, the highest-paid aldermen will make about $145,970 should they allow the automatic pay increase to go through. And thanks to a provision wedged into this year’s budget under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, other elected officials, including her successor, Brandon Johnson, will also be due the 2.24% salary increase as well.

The pay bump provision was baked into a 2006 city ordinance that offers annual aldermanic raises based on the consumer price index but also sparked some controversy for elected officials when skyrocketing inflation recently gifted them back-to-back, record-setting raises. Salaries for elected officials shot up by nearly 5.5% for those who accepted the raise in 2022′s fiscal year, then by 9.6% for participating aldermen this year.

The longtime policy tying City Council pay to inflation was considered politically expedient because it allowed aldermen to get annual raises without having to take potentially unpopular votes. And for many years — when the consumer price index rarely went above 3% and was often below 2% — their raises were relatively modest.

But the nearly 10% figure from the most recent budget season astounded critics, including those within the City Council who said it was unfair for elected officials to take more from taxpayers when everyday Chicagoans were struggling with cost-of-living. Ultimately, 17 out of 50 aldermen rejected the raise, and the highest-paid members who accepted it saw their compensation go up by $12,530 each, to about $142,780.

Amid the flurry of budget negotiations, multiple aldermen proposed ordinances reining in future pay increases, but none of them gained traction. Meanwhile, another provision pushed by Lightfoot that ties property tax hikes to the CPI with a 5% cap saw heavy disapproval during the 2023 election, when both then-candidate Johnson and his runoff opponent, Paul Vallas, vowed to undo the measure.

Since assuming office in May, Johnson has been less direct about those calls. His budget team is set to deliver a forecast on revenues, expenditures and the deficit later this month before unveiling his budget recommendation in October; the City Council will likely vote on the plan in November.

Until this year, there was no automatic pay adjustment for other city elected officials. Johnson makes $216,210, a mayoral salary that hasn’t changed since 2006 after the council passed a series of gradual raises in 2002 for themselves, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, the city clerk and the treasurer. But the budget ordinance Lightfoot pushed this year grants the mayor, city clerk and treasurer the same CPI-tied pay raise that aldermen are afforded unless they forgo it.

The current Clerk Anna Valencia and Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin each make $161,016 after individually accepting a pay bump topping 20% this year under Lightfoot’s 2023 budget. Conyears-Ervin — who has been accused of misconduct and ethical violations in allegations that Lightfoot’s administration fought to keep secret for years — said at the time that her and the clerk’s pay had been stagnant for 16 years while aldermen have benefited from raises.

A total of 31 aldermen currently make the highest pay at nearly $142,780, though 13 of them are freshmen City Council members who did not vote for the raises. The lowest-paid aldermen are Gilbert Villegas, 36th, at $115,560, and Marty Quinn, 13th, at $115,800. City Council members have varying salaries despite serving the same positions because of previous decisions to forgo annual raises.

Should Johnson accept the raise, he would make about $221,050 next year, while Valencia and Conyears-Ervin would each make about $164,620.

Also Wednesday, aldermen advanced a measure to eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers out of the council’s Rules committee, where legislation is often relegated via parliamentary maneuvers by opponents. In this case, Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, sent the ordinance there.

After a unanimous voice vote, the proposal will now be re-referred to the Workforce Development Committee before going up for a vote there and then before the full City Council. It has the backing of the mayor, and the lead sponsor, freshman Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26th, said she fully expects to pass the new requirement during the Oct. 4 City Council meeting.

Under the pending ordinance, Chicago employers of tipped workers must increase their hourly minimum wage by $3 starting July 2024 and then the following year bring it up to the regular minimum wage, which is currently $15.80 an hour and scheduled to increase annually based on inflation. Currently, tipped workers earn a minimum $9 hourly before tips.

In a celebratory news conference following the Rules committee voice vote on the legislation, supporters insisted abolishing tipped wages in Chicago would not do away with the practice of tipping itself, and pointed out that the ordinance prohibits bosses from taking the gratuities in the aftermath.

“This ordinance has 26 sponsors. We need 26 votes to pass this out of council. I’m confident we have will those votes in workforce (committee) as well,” Fuentes said before decrying unspecified opponents who are using “a tactic to instill fear” that the initiative will kill small businesses. “This is not just about keeping the pressure on, but this is about ensuring that we’re doing our due diligence in educating every resident across the city of Chicago.”

ayin@chicagotribune.com