‘I Will Not Accept a Pay Raise’: Mamdani Turns Down a Bump the Council Just Approved

New York City’s lawmakers just voted to give themselves — and nearly every other elected official at City Hall — a substantial bump in pay. Then the two most prominent names on the list said they don’t want theirs.

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The City Council approved an 18.2% raise on Thursday, lifting the base salary for rank-and-file members from $148,500 to $175,500, according to reports. The measure cleared the chamber 42–6, with Speaker Julie Menin casting the lone abstention.

It marks the first pay increase for most of the affected officials since 2016. And it reaches well beyond the Council’s own 51 members: the same legislation raises salaries for the mayor, the public advocate, the comptroller, the five borough presidents, the Council speaker, and the city’s district attorneys.

The increase traces back to the recommendation of a quadrennial advisory commission, whose June report called for an 18.2% adjustment to account for inflation from 2021 through 2025.

Not everyone at the top is taking the money. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose salary would climb from $258,750 to $305,800 under the new scale, told reporters flatly, “I will not accept a pay raise,” at a press conference the day of the vote, per a transcript released by the Mayor’s Office. Asked to explain, he said he hadn’t “knocked on anyone’s door in New York City, and they’ve said their concern is that the mayor makes too little.” Pressed on where the money should go instead, he answered: “To go to the pockets of those who are struggling in this city.” Menin said she would decline a higher salary as well.

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Six members voted against the package outright. Supporters argued the raise was overdue after nearly a decade without adjustment and pointed to the cost of living in a city where $148,500 stretches thinner than the number suggests. Critics questioned the optics of lawmakers voting to enlarge their own paychecks, particularly as many New Yorkers face rising rents and everyday expenses.

For residents, the change is a reminder of how the people who set the city’s budget also sit inside it. The raises take effect under the newly passed local law, and the decision by Mamdani and Menin to opt out of their own increases — while signing off on everyone else’s — is likely to keep the debate alive well past the vote itself.

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