Mayor Brandon Johnson and nearly every alderman will see pay hikes next year
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Stuck inside Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget proposal for 2024 is the disclosure that he, the city clerk, the treasurer and a vast majority of the Chicago City Council’s 50 members have accepted a pay raise for next year.
At 2.24%, the across-the-board hike is a more modest bump than the 9.6% raise aldermen were able to accept at this time last year just before facing voters at the ballot box. Still, it also comes as the mayor and the council dig into a budget that attempts to close an estimated $538 million gap.
Asked Wednesday whether his raise — to $221,052 in 2024, up from $216,310 — was appropriate given the shortfall, Johnson said, “Well, look, the budget hasn’t been passed yet.”
But then the mayor noted that raises for city elected officials aren’t the only pay hikes he’s supported.
“Fighting for the interest of workers, that’s always been my top priority,” Johnson continued, pointing out the city had recently passed an ordinance raising base wages for tipped workers and was working on increasing funding for homelessness services via the Bring Chicago Home proposal.
“Black women got raises, we did that. … You have an entire division within my office that’s dedicated to workers and the labor movement,” Johnson said. “And so the budget has been presented and people get to cast their votes accordingly.”
Johnson’s budget proposal calls for a $600,000 boost to the Office of Labor Standards, which enforces the city’s minimum wage, sick leave, scheduling and anti-retaliation laws.
City Clerk Anna Valencia and City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin will each see a salary boost to $164,628 next year from $161,016 this year. The two saw their salaries bump up roughly 20% last year thanks to a proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot lifting salaries for the three citywide executive offices.
A total of 31 aldermen currently make the highest pay at nearly $142,780 a year, though 13 of them are freshmen who did not vote for their own raises. The lowest-paid members of the council are Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, at $115,560, and Ald. Marty Quinn, 13th, at $115,800. City Council members have varying salaries, because of previous decisions to forgo annual raises.
Of those top earners, 29 aldermen opted to take the 2.24% raise next year, according to 2024 budget data. The new top pay rate will be $145,974, while the lowest will be $118,152.
At least two council members opted out of accepting a raise — Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, 33rd, and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th — the Tribune has previously reported.
Unlike in previous years, budget officials declined to give details about which council members accepted or rejected raises until Johnson formally introduced his budget. The mayor’s budget office did not respond to a request for the full list Thursday, though the latest city data from his Wednesday budget proposal suggest no others opted out of the raise.
Johnson’s budget proposal does not tie raises to specific members of the council, but city data released as part of his proposal shows the overall budget for aldermanic pay has risen to $6.99 million, up from the $6.78 million.
Following his win in April, Johnson helped reorganize the council and its leadership and that too came at a cost, the budget documents show.
The new Police and Fire Committee is slated for a budget of about $270,000 and the new vice mayor’s office — with Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, serving as a community emissary for the mayor — will cost about $410,000.
In all, under Johnson’s proposal, the City Council’s committees, the vice mayor position and the council’s Legislative Reference Bureau and Office of Financial Analysis will cost $7.5 million next year, which is $1.2 million more than the $6.3 million appropriated in this year’s budget.
