{"id":298116,"date":"2026-07-16T21:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298116\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T21:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:39:14","slug":"council-approves-10k-perk-for-public-school-paraprofessionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298116\/","title":{"rendered":"Council approves $10k perk for public school paraprofessionals"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published<\/a> on July 16 by The City Reporter. Sign up here<\/a> to get the latest stories from The City Reporter delivered to you each morning.<\/p>\n

The City Council voted unanimously to approve a one-time $10,000 payment<\/a> to most of the public school paraprofessionals on Thursday, an effort to boost retention and recruitment for the badly-needed \u2013 but low-paying \u2013 jobs with students. <\/p>\n

But Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, who could try to stop the bill, said it is in \u201cdirect violation\u201d of state labor law. <\/p>\n

The bill was sponsored by nearly every member of the Council, and passed 49 to 0, with two members absent. <\/p>\n

$244 million price tag<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a mandate from the entire city of New York. This is a mandate because we heard the numbers \u2014 $32,000 starting salary, in the most expensive city in the world,\u201d Councilmember Carmen de la Rosa, the bill\u2019s lead sponsor, said at a press conference earlier in the day. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we are in the throes of an affordability crisis, the way we can quell some of the issues of poverty is by putting money directly into people\u2019s pockets,\u201d De La Rosa said. \u201cAnd this is what this bill does.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cRespect\u201d check, as it\u2019s called, would give public school paraprofessionals $10,000 in four installments, starting on Jan. 1, 2027, and going through Aug. 1 of the same year. Substitute paraprofessionals would have their money pro-rated based on how many days they worked. <\/p>\n

The cost to the city would be around $244 million for payments to an estimated 26,000 paraprofessionals. The starting pay for paras is around $34,000, and rises to a top rate of more than $56,000 within 15 years, according to the United Federation of Teachers.<\/p>\n

Labor law conflict?<\/p>\n

Mamdani \u2014 who, as a candidate, supported an earlier version of the bill \u2014 expressed concerns as mayor over any payment made outside collective bargaining while also praising the work of paraprofessionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been clear that questions of compensation are best resolved through the collective bargaining process that respects workers and their unions,\u201d he said in a statement after the vote. \u201cHowever, the Council\u2019s passage of this legislation is in direct violation of the Taylor Law. Our administration is reviewing the final language carefully and working to determine the appropriate next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat New York is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

The mayor could veto the bill, but given the strong support in the Council they could then vote to override his veto. <\/p>\n

United Federation of Teachers<\/a> President Michael Mulgrew said Thursday that the bill was written in a way to not run afoul of the state labor law. The bill, he said, is a last-ditch effort to help his workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would prefer to do this through collective bargaining, but you need a willing partner on the other side,\u201d Mulgrew said. <\/p>\n

Katie Honan covers New York City Hall for The City Reporter and is co-host of the FAQ NYC podcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published on July 16 by The City Reporter. Sign up here to get the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4146,113423,9,24,55,54,56,63,67925,113424],"class_list":["post-298116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-chalkbeat","tag-flickr","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-council-media-unit","tag-speaker-julie-menin-and-council-members-rally-with-uft-in-support-of-emergency-retention-funding-for-paraprofessionals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}