Mayor, Brandon Johnson, and majority of its City Council appear on track to receive pay raises in January 2024. As Block Club reports, these salary increases arrive while the city toils under the weight of a projected budget deficit exceeding $500 million.
These raises, tied to the Consumer Price Index, will result in a 2.24 percent increase for the mayor, city treasurer, city clerk, and all 50 alderpeople. While Mayor Johnson's office has not explicitly stated his intent to accept the raise, the absence of paperwork rejecting it suggests that come next year, his salary could rise by approximately $4,800, amounting to a total of $221,052—a potential first increase for a Chicago mayor since 2006, per WBEZ.
Most City Council members are also in line for raises following the passage of a relevant ordinance, which goes into effect on January 1, 2024. If elected officials wish to opt out of the pay hike, they must notify the city's budget office. Among the City Council members, only two have publicly declined the offer: Alds. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd). Citing the documents obtained by Block Club, the pair—both considered progressive allies of Johnson—submitted signed statements to the city's Office of Budget Management to refuse the salary increase.
This news emerges as Johnson and his budget team continue grappling with the city's worrisome financial outlook. Earlier this month, the team disclosed a $538 million gap between projected revenues and expenses in 2024. And while Mayor Johnson isn't providing answers about his potential salary improvement, his office did note in a written statement that the 2024 budget negotiations are an ongoing process where nothing is set in stone—including the salaries of elected officials—until the complete budget is both balanced and finalized.
Though the current deficit looms large, the annual raises often generate controversy among political and public spheres in the city. With former Mayor Lori Lightfoot's budget ordinance, ties between salary raises for the mayor, clerk, and treasurer, and the inflation rate emerged, alongside a 5% cap on increases. Now, Chicago's leaders appear to face a conundrum as they struggle to balance fiscal responsibility and their constituents' concerns over rising costs and inflation. The public reaction has been mixed as some leaders accept the pay bump, while others, such as Ald. Sigcho-Lopez and Ald. Rodriguez-Sanchez, choose to forgo the increase in solidarity with workers fighting for higher wages in the city.
The Office of Budget Management has stated that a list of elected officials who have accepted or rejected the 2024 raise will not be released until Mayor Johnson's budget proposal is unveiled in mid-October. However, according yet again to the documents obtained by Block Club, the only two forms indicating the rejection of the 2024 raise have come from Ald. Sigcho-Lopez and Ald. Rodriguez-Sanchez.
