NYC managers score 16% salary hike as Adams pushes program cuts

Metro

By Rich Calder and Susan Edelman

Mayor Eric Adams might be crying poverty over the Big Apple’s migrant crisis, but that didn’t stop him from quietly pushing through a giant $2.1 billion raise package for 10,000 bureaucrats.

The salary increases, which Adams approved in February without putting out a press release, will retroactively boost salaries by 16.2% for managers and other non-union employees when compounded annually over a five-year period dating back to 2021.

It includes 3% wage hikes per year for the past three years, another 3% increase kicking in May 24, followed by a 3.25% hike in May 2025.

Under Adams’ order, managers and non-union staffers making $100,000 will see their pay increase to $112,550 next month and $116,208 the following year.

Anyone earning $200,000 before the agreement – first reported by Politico – would have their salary surge to $225,101 in May and $232,417 next year.

The affected staffers — which include deputy mayors, agency commissioners and other top honchos — also scored a lump sum bonus of $3,000. They could additionally receive yet-to-be-determined pay raises at department heads’ discretion.

The non-union employees also now qualify for up to12 weeks of paid family leave and saw their paid parental leave double to 12 weeks under another Adams order in February, a policy change that officials estimate will cost taxpayers $2.5 million annually.

The raises will cost taxpayers $2.1 billion through fiscal 2028, but will be fully funded with cash already in reserve funds available due to “strong fiscal management” that closed an “unprecedented $7 billion gap without major service disruptions, layoffs, or tax hikes,” said City Hall spokesperson Kate Smart.

She said the raise package and paid-leave perks – which are comparable to what most unionized city workers received through new labor deals since Adams took office in 2022 – are needed to retain quality talent in the government workforce.

However, former City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who is mulling challenging Adams in the 2025 Democratic mayoral primary, suggested the raises are politically driven to “keep people happy during election time,” adding, “when you approach government like that, it means you keep nobody happy.”

Stringer – who supports paying workers “their worth” to retain “talent” – said it’s tough to judge the managerial-raise-package’s merits because Adams has little credibility with fiscal predictions.

“The problem is [Adams] cried ‘wolf’ on the deficit,” Stringer said. “The City Council now says you have multiple billions in surplus, so it is very hard to believe a word” Adams says “in terms of the budget and the city’s finances.”

Adams is battling with the City Council over how to balance his $109.4 billion budget proposal for the new fiscal year beginning in July, with a migrant crisis projected to cost New Yorkers more than $10 billion by mid-2026.

City Council leaders claimed they have found an extra $6 billion in taxpayer dollars – including $3.35 billion in tax revenue and $2 billion in unfilled positions Adams hasn’t accounted for – that could be used to thwart spending cuts proposed by the mayor to public libraries, 3K programs and other services.

“Mayor Adams is in a tough spot,” said Ken Girardin, director of research for the nonprofit think tank Empire Center for Public Policy.

“He’s shaking the tin cup in Albany and Washington D.C. looking for migrant aid with one hand, and with the other hand he’s giving out raises to managers because he’s already given them out to [unionized employees].”

Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) said she believes it’s “absurd” for Adams to give “pay raises and other perks to city managers while simultaneously slashing” agency budgets.

“If this administration truly cared about retaining talent, they’d be pushing for more hires and expanding manpower levels across the board,” she said. “People aren’t leaving city jobs because they’re underpaid — they’re leaving because they’re overworked.”

Adams proposed budget includes a whopping $16 billion for all pay raises to the city’s 300,000-plus workforce, said Ana Champeny, vice president for research at the government watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission.

It’s troubling, she added, that the pay hikes were granted without City Hall negotiating work-rule changes “to increase productivity and reduce other costs to help pay for the wage increases.”