A bill to provide $10,000 bonuses to New York City’s full-time paraprofessionals is headed to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s desk after it was approved by City Council members Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Similar legislation introduced<\/a> last year was backed by the United Federation of Teachers in an effort to address the city’s paraprofessional shortage. After the bill failed to move out of committee, it was reintroduced<\/a> in February by multiple council members.\u00a0<\/p>\n Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n If Mamdani signs the bill, full-time paraprofessionals will receive four payments of $2,500 throughout the 2026-27 school year. The bill<\/a> allows the council to reauthorize stipends each year as long as New York City Public Schools has a paraprofessional shortage or until the city changes the practice of pattern bargaining<\/a> \u2014 a local policy that lets the salary increases negotiated for one municipal union’s contract set the pattern for all the others.<\/p>\n The United Federation of Teachers and council members said pattern bargaining has contributed to low paraprofessional pay.<\/p>\n “Once the initial bargaining pattern is established, it becomes an enormous challenge to get the city to grant significantly better terms to another union,” the United Federation of Teachers said on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n New paraprofessionals earn roughly $32,000 in the city. Over the past 20 years, starting salaries<\/a> have increased nearly $12,000 for paraprofessionals but top $86,000 for the highest-paid principals.<\/p>\n “We are going to pass this bill and we are going to put it on the desk of the mayor of New York City saying that the paraprofessionals have been unjustly treated and we are in a crisis,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew at a union gathering<\/a> at New York City Hall on Thursday. “And the paraprofessionals are dealing with that crisis each and every day with their work, going above and beyond, and now it’s time for our city to act and do the right thing.”<\/p>\n Related<\/a><\/p>\n Across the U.S., Unions Are Seeking Big Boosts to Paraprofessional Pay<\/a><\/p>\n Mamdani supported the bill while campaigning but expressed concern after he took office, saying<\/a> compensation should be handled only in the collective bargaining process. He has 30 days to decide whether to sign the bill, according to the council<\/a>. If he vetoes it, the legislation will go back to the council, and members can override his veto with a two-thirds vote. If he doesn’t sign or veto the bill, it will become law.<\/p>\n Priscilla Castro, president of the paraprofessional chapter of the United Federation of Teachers, said several paras from each New York City borough gathered at City Hall as the bill went through a committee vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Today, we’re making a change. It’s a movement. We will not stop until we get this legislation passed and bring it home,” she said outside the council chambers<\/a>.<\/p>\n During the council vote, members said paraprofessional pay raises were overdue and are crucial to rewarding some of the hardest-working school employees in the city.<\/p>\n