New York City elected officials could be in line for a whopping 18.2% pay raises this summer after an independent commission quietly recommended salary increases for the mayor, City Council and other top city officials in a report published on election day.
The Quadrennial Advisory Commission, appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani in March, recommended raising pay for the mayor, City Council members, borough presidents, the comptroller, public advocate, Council speaker, and district attorneys from their 2016 salary levels, according to a report dated June 23. City & State first reported the recommendations on Monday.
The commission, in its final report, framed the proposed 18.2% increase as a cost-of-living adjustment rather than a traditional raise. The panel said the city last enacted a salary increase for elected officials in 2016, while inflation in the NYC area grew 31% between 2016 and 2025, with most of that increase occurring since 2021. The news comes as the city has yet to finalize a budget plan by the June 30 deadline, which aims to close a $5.6 billion deficit this year.
Any pay changes would still require City Council approval, and Speaker Julie Menin’s office said the Council expects to take up the issue soon.
“The Speaker has briefed Council Members on the commission’s recommendations and is currently determining next steps,” spokesperson Henry Robins said in a statement. “The Council expects to take up the issue with a vote later this summer.”
Under the recommendation, rank-and-file City Council members’ salaries would rise from $148,500 to $175,500. The mayor’s salary would increase from $258,750 to $305,800; the public advocate’s from $184,800 to $218,400; the comptroller’s from $209,050 to $247,100; the borough presidents’ from $179,200 to $211,800; and the Council speaker’s from $164,500 to $194,400.
Both Menin and Mamdani have previously said they would not take a pay increase.
District attorneys, whose salaries are tied to state Supreme Court justices and have already increased since 2016, would have their charter salary raised to $251,500. The report notes district attorneys’ salaries increased to $232,600 in 2024 and $237,300 in 2026.
The commission said it focused on economic changes since 2021 because most current officeholders began their first full terms in 2022 or later. The 18.2% figure, according to the report, reflects compounded NYC-area inflation from 2021 through 2025 and is intended to restore the purchasing power elected officials expected when they took office.
“As Deputy Speaker of the City Council, Nantasha Williams noted in her public testimony to this Commission in May 2026, increasing the salaries of the city’s elected officials is not a raise. It is a long-overdue cost-of-living adjustment,” the report states.
The report also argues that compensation levels affect who can afford to run for and remain in public office. The commission wrote that the city’s public matching funds system and ranked choice voting have made running for office more attractive to younger and more diverse candidates, including those with less accumulated wealth.
“Elected office should be fairly compensated and accessible to all qualified candidates, not only those with substantial wealth,” the commission wrote.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
More than they asked for
The June 23 report lands after months of political maneuvering over elected officials’ pay.
The commission’s recommendation is larger than the 16% raises some council members had pushed for last year through legislation before the effort drew skepticism from government watchdogs.
That earlier proposal would have raised Council members’ salaries to $172,500, the mayor’s salary to $300,500, the public advocate’s salary to $215,000, borough presidents’ salaries to $208,000, the comptroller’s salary to $243,000 and the Council speaker’s salary to $191,000.
The commission’s recommendation now puts higher numbers before city hall, but through the independent salary-review process that watchdog groups had urged after criticizing the Council’s earlier attempt to move raises legislatively.
Citizens Union and Common Cause opposed the Council’s earlier plan not because of the proposed increases themselves, but because of the way lawmakers wanted to enact them. At a December hearing, Citizens Union Executive Director Grace Rauh warned that the Council making its own recommendation without independent input could undermine public trust.
Last year, the Council considered legislation to raise salaries without waiting for a new independent commission.
Williams, a Queens Democrat who sponsored the bill, and Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn), a cosponsor, said at the time that action was needed because Council members had gone nearly a decade without a raise and because compensation should allow “the best and brightest,” not just the wealthiest, to pursue public service.
Williams later introduced a bill to formalize the quadrennial review timeline. The Council approved that measure on March 10, requiring the mayor to convene a commission in 2026, then between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15 of 2030, and every four years after that.
Mamdani appointed the three commission members later that month: Carl Weisbrod, a former city planning official and founding president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, as chair; Dr. Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, a former deputy mayor for health and human services; and Larian Angelo, a former first deputy director at the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget and former City Council finance director.
At the time, Mamdani said Weisbrod, Barrios-Paoli and Angelo would approach the work with “the seriousness and independence it demands.”
The final report does include some testimony opposing the raises.
Queens Council Member Phil Wong urged the commission not to recommend any salary increase for Council members at this time, arguing that the city faced fiscal challenges and that residents were dealing with rising costs for rent, groceries, and other expenses.
Several other Council members urged the opposite, writing that salaries had been frozen for nearly a decade while the cost of living increased. They argued that compensation should not deter a diverse cross-section of New Yorkers from running for public office.
Citizens Union also testified in favor of increasing compensation to offset cost-of-living increases, according to the report, while Reinvent Albany supported appropriate pay tied to accountability reforms, including changes related to third-party travel payments and easier public access to elected officials’ financial disclosure forms.
The commission did not recommend directly adopting those accountability reforms, saying they should be evaluated by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board rather than the salary commission.
Beyond the immediate salary recommendation, the commission also proposed changes meant to prevent future long gaps between reviews.
It recommended that the city convene the commission every four years, appoint a new commission in early 2028 to make recommendations taking effect with a newly elected Council in January 2030, and pass a law creating an automatic inflation-tied increase of 2% per year or the actual inflation rate, whichever is lower, if a commission is not convened on time.
The commission also recommended that if the City Council modifies the salary recommendations, it should explain its reasons in writing.
