{"id":298221,"date":"2026-07-16T23:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298221\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T23:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:11:10","slug":"nyc-council-oks-10k-raises-for-school-paraprofessionals-sidestepping-union-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298221\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Council OKs $10K raises for school paraprofessionals \u2014 sidestepping union contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city\u2019s teaching assistants will get $10,000 pay bumps after a City Council vote Thursday that bypassed the collective bargaining process \u2014 and could face a potential veto from Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

The unanimous vote by City Council members fulfilled a long-sought goal by the powerful United Federation of Teachers union to raise the pay of paraprofessionals.<\/p>\n

But the approval also came over the objections of many government insiders and watchdogs with the Citizen Budget Commission, who warned the combined $324 million giveaway could set a dangerous \u2014 and ultimately even more costly \u2014 precedent.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who supported legislation to hike paraprofessional pay as a mayoral candidate, likewise argued that government employees\u2019 pay hikes should be negotiated rather than decided on the whims of lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to first just underline the importance of paraprofessionals in our city in our education system. The work that they do is critical,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani hinted he was unhappy with the vote to raise paraprofessionals\u2019 salaries by $10,000. James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also said that I believe that this is a matter that is best treated at the bargaining table and we will see what the City Council does, but those are my thoughts on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s comments hint he could consider a veto, although the bill passed with ironclad majority that would be able to easily override it.<\/p>\n

The prospect of a $10,000 pay hike arose in 2025 after officials with former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 administration waved off a request for paraprofessional raises.<\/p>\n

Council Speaker Julie Menin practically dared Mamdani to try and veto the raises. Youtube\/NYCC<\/p>\n

UFT President Michael Mulgrew threw his support behind a City Council bill that essentially performed an end run around collective bargaining<\/a> with the Adams administration.<\/p>\n

When the measure reemerged this year, Citizens Budget Commission vice president for research Ana Champeny said it\u2019d circumvent the whole point of collective bargaining \u2014 namely, balancing the desire for raises with the city\u2019s fiscal capacity and negotiations with other unions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this bill becomes law, other unions may also seek legislation to increase compensation beyond what they collectively bargained,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cThat would weaken the bargaining process, increase pressure for additional off-cycle compensation, and expose the City to substantial future costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City Council should reject this bill. If it is passed, the Mayor should veto it. The City should continue to determine employee compensation at the bargaining table, not the legislative chamber.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former City Hall\u00a0labor negotiator, who requested anonymity, said the council passing a bill to boost paraprofessionals\u2019 salaries is \u201cstupid, but legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City Council unanimously approved the raises. New York City Council<\/p>\n

\u201cNo union will ever do collective bargaining if they could just go to the legislature and get what they want,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

City Council Speaker Julie Menin argued lawmakers tried to get the raises through collective bargaining and the budget, but were thwarted by the administration. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have more than enough votes to do an override,\u201d she said. \u201cI really hope it does not come to that, to do a veto of a bill that is raising salaries for paras literally making $32,000 a year.. Shameful wages and I don\u2019t understand how that could be controversial or how anyone could disagree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Carl Campanile and Craig McCarthy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city\u2019s teaching assistants will get $10,000 pay bumps after a City Council vote Thursday that bypassed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[301,57,9,56,63,65,64,29062,4338,58,82],"class_list":["post-298221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-city-council","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-raises","tag-united-federation-of-teachers","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298221","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=298221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}