Mayor defends salary hike for himself, City Council as meeting market value
Mayor Martin J. Walsh defended his recommendation to increase his salary and city councilors’ pay by more than 4 percent, saying his concern is about personnel leading his departments being compensated at their market values.
“I’m more concerned about the department heads and the people we have,” Walsh told the Herald yesterday. “We lose a lot of people to the private sector because they pay more money.
“We have super-talented people in the city, and we want to recruit super-talented people in the city to come work for the city,” he added. “If you don’t have the flexibility to be able to make some salary adjustments and make some increases in offering, it makes it difficult.”
The proposal, which has to be approved by the City Council, recommends the mayor’s salary jumping to $207,000 from $199,000, while councilors’ pay would increase from $99,500 to $103,500.
Walsh established raises for himself and the council based on recommendations by the Compensation Advisory Board. The board determined 4.2 percent increases for the mayor and city councilors based on an inflation, cost-of-living hike.
David Tuerck, president of the Beacon Hill Institute, blasted the potential raises.
“It’s deplorable that he wants to give himself a 4 percent raise when the wages in the Boston area rose by only 1.7 percent over the last year. That’s deplorable,” Tuerck added, saying of the council, “Let them get the same raises the rest of us are getting, which is almost nonexistent.”
The pay hikes wouldn’t be enacted for the council until after next year’s municipal elections, while the boost for the mayor wouldn’t go into effect until after the 2021 mayoral election.
Walsh’s salary was increased by the council from $175,000 to $199,000 in 2015. He began taking the higher salary in April, his office said. Councilors received a $12,000 pay raise in 2015.
The mayor has also tweaked salary ranges for more than 20 City Hall jobs. Those hikes would take effect immediately if approved.