Facing a $1 billion budget gap, Brandon Johnson hasn’t said if he’ll take a pay raise next year

Elected city officials are slated to receive a 4.1% raise next year, though Mayor Brandon Johnson has so far declined to say whether he plans to take the pay bump as the city stares down a nearly $1 billion budget gap.

A spokesman for Johnson said he has “nothing to share at this time.” Spokespersons for City Clerk Anna Valencia and City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin did not respond to requests for comment on whether they’re taking the raise, as they did last year. The raise is tied to the rate of inflation, and each year city officials are given the opportunity to opt out of the automatic increase.

At least two City Council members — progressive Alds. Byron Sigcho-Lopez and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez — told WBEZ they are foregoing the raise. They were the lone alderpersons to decline it last year.

Officials had a Sunday deadline to opt out of the automatic raise, which routinely presents a political conundrum as city residents battle rising costs and inflation. And it comes as the Johnson administration has enacted a hiring freeze to stem a $223 million end-of-year deficit and nearly $1 billion dollar budget gap for next year. Johnson has warned “there are sacrifices that will be made” to close the gaps, and he has not ruled out raising property taxes, even though he promised during his campaign he wouldn’t do that.

All three citywide elected officials and 48 alderpersons accepted the raise last year, which was 2.24%. If all elected officials were to take this year’s raise, it would cost the city about an additional $311,276.

Johnson’s $221,052 annual salary would grow by roughly $9,125 to $230,177.

Valencia and Conyears-Ervin each stand to earn nearly $6,796 more, bringing their annual salaries to roughly $171,424 a piece.

If most Council members take the pay increase as they did last year, salaries among alderpersons will range from $123,029 to $152,018 — with the majority of members making the highest amount. Salaries vary depending on whether alderpersons, or their predecessors, accepted previous pay hikes for the position.

Under past administrations, the city’s budget office routinely released the names of which city officials were taking the raise. But Johnson’s administration declined to volunteer the information last year until the proposed budget was released. WBEZ obtained the information via an open records request. A spokeswoman for the city’s budget office did not immediately respond to questions Monday on which officials accepted the raise.

Progressive Ald. Andre Vasquez, (40th) said he will take the increase that he painted as “marginal” relative to the overall budget gap.

“I get the visceral reaction [to alderpersons taking raises], but we're talking about numbers that are marginal,” he said. “I mean, when you think about the amount of work a lot of the folks in government are doing, as much as people like to tout around the fact that it's a ‘part-time job’ — this job's 24/7. There's stuff where I'm in the middle of night answering questions, on the weekends, and so I feel justified in the amount of compensation for the work being done.”

Vasquez’s salary will grow by about $6,000 to $152,018.

Ald. Brendan Reilly, (42nd), has historically turned down pay increases and is one of the lowest paid alderpersons in the Council, but said he will take a raise this year, bringing his salary to roughly $125,203.

“You're talking to someone who has refused all of his pay increases historically,” Reilly said, though adding he took one last year. “It's symbolic.”

Sigcho Lopez, who will remain at $142,776, agreed the decision of whether to take an increase is based on principle.

“Everybody is looking to make sacrifices, and I think we’ve got to lead by example,” Sigcho Lopez said.

Ald. William Hall, (6th), who chairs a subcommittee dedicated to exploring new ways to raise revenue for the city, would not tell WBEZ whether he is taking the raise. He defended alderpersons and their staff for getting pay increases — and said that ultimately the decision is a personal one.

“I'm not going to get in anybody's business. You got alders that got families, children. The cost of food is going up. The cost of everything is going up, including the cost to work,” Hall said. “I mean, you got people sacrificing, working diligently every single day. So I'm not counting nobody's money.”

Alderpersons established a system to receive pay increases tied to the rate of inflation in 2006 when Council members were making $98,125. In 2022, a third of the Council — 17 alderpersons — decided to reject nearly 10% raises.

In 2022, Mayor Lori Lightfoot moved to include citywide elected officials — the mayor, treasurer and clerk — in the inflation-tied raise process, which caps their raises at 5%.

Currently, the lowest paid alderperson, Ald. Gilbert Villegas, makes $118,152 a year.

Tessa Weinberg and Mariah Woelfel cover Chicago city government and politics at WBEZ.