Chicago’s mayor hasn’t gotten a pay raise since 2006. Mayors Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot have all been paid $216,210 a year. Not for long, if Lightfoot gets her way.
The catch-all "management ordinance" introduced at Wednesday’smeeting and tied to Lightfoot’s $16.4 billion budget proposes tying the mayor’s future salary to the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is less.
The city treasurer and city clerk, both in line for 20.5% raises to $161,016, also would get annual increases after that capped at 5% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. All three could issue sworn statements declining the annual increases, just as alderpersons can do now with their annual increases tied to inflation — though without a 5% cap.
During that same period, the maximum aldermanic salary has risen about 50%, from $95,000 to $142,000, the treasurer said. "I love the work. … So whether it’s me, and I’m lucky enough to be the city clerk, or the next clerk, it would be a fair adjustment." After declining his pay raise, Ald. Marty Quinn said he was having trouble understanding the rationale for the clerk and treasurer accepting more than twice that much, percentage-wise.Ald. Andre Vasquez did not decline a raise, but, like the mayor, he has proposed limiting future aldermanic pay raises to 5% or the inflation rate, whichever is less. The 5% cap would kick in when the new Council is sworn in next spring.
The resolution specifically mentions "recent comments by Kanye West and others" who have "sparked new waves of internet- and social-media-based anti-Semitism" across the nation.