Mayor Eric Adams may be crying poverty over the migrant crisis in the Big Apple, but that didn’t stop him from quietly pushing through a giant $2.1 billion raise for 10,000 bureaucrats.
The pay increases, which Adams approved in February without issuing a press release, will retroactively increase wages by 16.2% for managers and other non-union employees when compounded annually over a five-year period dating back to 2021.
It includes salary increases of 3% per year for the past three years, another 3% increase starting May 24, followed by a 3.25% increase in May 2025.
Under Adams’ order, managers and non-union employees earning $100,000 will see their salaries increase to $112,550 next month and $116,208 the following year.
Anyone earning $200,000 before the deal — first reported by Politico — would see their salary increase to $225,101 in May and $232,417 next year.
Affected staffers — who include deputy mayors, agency commissioners and other big names — also received a $3,000 flat bonus. They could also benefit from salary increases not yet determined, at the discretion of department heads.
Non-union employees are also now entitled to 12 weeks of paid family leave and had their paid parental leave doubled to 12 weeks under another Adams order in February, a policy change that officials say will cost taxpayers $2.5 million per year.
The increases will cost taxpayers $2.1 billion through fiscal year 2028, but will be funded entirely by cash already present in available reserve funds due to “strong fiscal management” that closed a “gap unprecedented $7 billion without major service disruptions, layoffs or tax increases.” said City Hall spokesperson Kate Smart.
She said the raise package and paid leave benefits — which are comparable to what most unionized city workers have received through new labor agreements since Adams took office in 2022 — are necessary to retain quality talent in the government workforce.
However, former City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who plans to challenge Adams in the 2025 Democratic mayoral primary, suggested the raises were politically motivated to “keep people happy during election time,” adding, “when you approach the government this way means you keep no one happy.
Stringer – who supports paying workers “what they are worth” to retain “talent” – said it was difficult to judge the merits of the executive raise program because Adams has little credibility when it comes to budget forecasts.
“The problem is (Adams) cried wolf on the deficit,” Stringer said. “The city council now says you have several billion in surplus, so it’s very hard to believe a word of it,” Adams says, “in terms of the city’s budget and finances.”
Adams is battling with the City Council over how to balance his $109.4 billion budget proposal for the new fiscal year starting in July, with a migrant crisis expected to cost New Yorkers more than $10 billion in here mid-2026.
City Council leaders claimed they found an additional $6 billion in taxpayer money — including $3.35 billion in tax revenue and $2 billion in vacancies that Adams failed to account for — that could be used to thwart the mayor’s proposed spending cuts to public libraries. 3K programs and other services.
“Mayor Adams finds himself in a difficult situation,” said Ken Girardin, research director of the nonprofit think tank Empire Center for Public Policy.
“He’s waving the tin cup in Albany and Washington D.C. for help for immigrants with one hand, and with the other hand he’s giving raises to managers because he’s already given them (to employees). union members).”
Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) said she thought it was “absurd” for Adams to give “salary increases and other benefits to city managers while simultaneously cutting” agency budgets .
“If this administration truly cared about retaining talent, it would push for more hiring and increased staffing levels at all levels,” she said. “People don’t leave their jobs in the city because they are underpaid, but because they are overworked.”
Adams’ proposed budget includes a whopping $16 billion for all pay raises for the city’s more than 300,000 employees, said Ana Champeny, vice president of research at the government watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission.
It’s troubling, she added, that the pay increases were granted without City Hall negotiating changes to work rules “to increase productivity and reduce other costs to help pay for the increases.” salary”.
New York Post
