Chicago aldermen stand to get raises of nearly 10%, unless they turn down the inflation-tied pay hikes by next week

Chicago aldermen have until next week to decide if they will forgo raises of nearly 10% — otherwise the pay increases will go into effect automatically just weeks before all their seats are up for election.

Similar to the yearly property tax request, changes in city council pay are tied automatically to the rate of inflation, which allows aldermen to avoid having to vote annually on politically sensitive proposals like tax increases or their own salaries.

Unlike property tax increases, however, aldermanic pay raises are not capped at 5% annually, and this year — as inflation hovers at levels not seen in decades — council members are looking at raises of 9.6%, according to an Aug. 15 letter from budget director Susie Park. Council compensation varies because some members have turned down past pay hikes.

As part of a 2006 city ordinance that offers annual aldermanic pay raises based on the consumer price index, the 2023 salaries of the highest-paid City Council members who accept it will go up by about $12,530 each, to about $142,780.

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This year’s salaries for the elected officials went up by nearly 5.5% for the 45 aldermen who decided last year to accept the raise. At the time, that was the largest pay increase in dollars since the ordinance was enacted, though still significantly smaller than next year’s.

Aldermen who wish to decline next year’s automatic raise must respond by Sept. 2. The raises will go into effect in January, with city council elections in every ward looming Feb. 28.

This fall, aldermen are expected to vote on whether to raise property taxes on home business owners by $42.7 million. That amount is also tied to inflation, though the increase is capped at 5%, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently announced she would only ask for a 2.5% hike rather than the $85 million the city could have levied under her formula.

Balancing the two decisions could be a tricky needle to thread ahead of the election, during which the mayor is also vying to retain her job.

The highest-paid aldermen currently make $130,248 a year, according to the city database, which lists 30 of them earning that amount. The least-paid are Alds. Marty Quinn, 13th, at $115,800, and Gilbert Villegas, 36th, at $115,560.

Villegas was among five aldermen who declined this year’s 5.5% raise. The others were Silvana Tabares, 23rd; Felix Cardona, 31st; Matt Martin, 47th; and Raymond Lopez, 15th, who is among several people running against Lightfoot next year for mayor.

Should all 50 aldermen accept next year’s raise, the total extra cost to taxpayers next year would top $610,000. But several told the Tribune they intend to turn down the increases.

Villegas said it was against his principles to take a raise of almost 10% when he already out-earns most of his ward’s residents during economically fraught times.

“It’s just not right,” Villegas said. “We need to make sure that we’re representative of the community, and so that’s why I’ve chosen to continue to — especially during this pandemic — not accept any raises until we’re back to some type of normalcy. … There has to be some shared sacrifices.”

Martin said he will also turn down the raise but declined to expand on why, citing the sensitive nature of pay. However, he said he believes City Council should revisit the 2006 ordinance tying raises to inflation so that there isn’t an annual “uncomfortable” flurry of questions over each alderman’s salary.”

“We should just have something that’s standard that doesn’t have these weird opt-ins and opt-outs,” Martin said.

Lopez in a tweet also called for his colleagues to “hit the stop button on secret pay increases & force aldermen to vote on them as a stand-alone ordinance.”

Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, said in a text message: “I know I won’t be accepting it.”

Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, said Wednesday he hadn’t been aware of the 9.6% figure and exclaimed, “Wow!” when told.

The chair of the council’s Black Caucus said he didn’t know if he’d take the raise yet and that he would have to discuss the decision with his wife, City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin.

“Nine-point-six percent, you know, is a little hefty,” Ervin said. “But again, if you factor in the rationale that was done whenever that ordinance was passed, we have to take all that into consideration. … It is what it is.”

Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, said, “My hope is that if we forgo our raises, they can do something about property taxes, because my community can’t afford a property tax increase. We just can’t.”

Should aldermen not accomplish that by Sept. 2, Taylor said, she’d take the raise.

“I’m working my butt off,” Taylor said. “I’m struggling like everybody else. But I’m in a little better position than some people. I make a little more. And so when do we sacrifice and think about the people we’re paid to represent?”

The median household income for a Chicagoan is $62,097, according to 2020 U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

There’s no automatic pay adjustment for other city elected officials. Lightfoot makes $216,210, a mayoral salary that hasn’t changed since 2006, after the council had passed a series of gradual raises in 2002 for themselves, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, the city clerk and treasurer.

Meanwhile, Cook County commissioners faced a similar dicey decision ahead of the June primary this year, voting to increase their pay by 10% starting December — and with automatic raises up to 3% annually after that. Ultimately, no board members who voted for the raise saw themselves ousted in their primaries, although one commissioner who voted no, Luis Arroyo Jr., lost.