The New York City Council is set to vote on a bill that would raise their salaries by 18.2% – after a Mayor Zohran Mamdani-appointed advisory committee recommended a pay raise for city leaders.

Democratic Council Member Nantasha Williams sponsored the bill following the release of a report by the three-person Quadrennial Advisory Commission that Mamdani put together. The report says the council should pass a measure to increase salaries for NYC’s borough presidents, council members, city officials and district attorneys.

The bill would increase Williams and her colleagues’ salaries from $148,500 to $175,500 backdated to January, Mamdani’s from $258,750 to $305,800 and Council Speaker Julie Menin’s from $164,500 to $194,000. Both Mamdani and Menin have said they wouldn’t accept the increases.

The new proposed salary for Mamdani, a democratic-sociaist, would put his pay higher than the combined salaries of the governors of Florida and Texas. And New York City’s council members would earn more than members of Congress and state legislators in every U.S. state: the base salary for Congress members is $173,900, and the average annual base salary for a state legislator was $47,904 in 2025.

Williams told Just the News in a statement that the bill implements the commission’s recommendations by “updating compensation based on its findings, establishing a more consistent schedule for future reviews, and creating a framework for future cost-of-living adjustments.”

She also said that Mamdani’s legislation establishing the Quadrennial Advisory Commission in the first place was an effort to shorten the time it takes to review compensation for New York City’s elected officials and “create a transparent, independent, and predictable process” that “gives New Yorkers confidence that these reviews are conducted openly, regularly, and according to clear standards.”

NYC's elected officials have not had a pay raise since 2016. The commission said the salary increase recommendation was underscored by the fact that inflation in the New York area has increased 31% between 2016 and 2025.

Republican lawmakers have criticized the commission’s recommendation and Williams’ bill, including Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, who said it was “communism on full display” and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chimed in on X that “communists always pay themselves first.”

The council will vote on the bill next week on July 16.

Hours before a July 1 deadline, Mamdani and Menin shook hands on a record $125.8 billion city budget for this upcoming fiscal year – passed by a vote of 45-6. The council’s five Republican members voted against it, in addition to one Democrat: Council member Althea Stevens. Among other reasons, the Republicans voted “no” because a plan to increase the police department’s headcount was not included in the final deal.

Further, Stevens said there wasn’t enough investment in her Bronx district: “It saddens me that I cannot tell my constituents that this budget fully meets the urgency of their needs.”

The bill would also establish that while these offices’ salaries would stay the same during a four-year term, the incomes would automatically increase to account for changes in the cost of living, or by 8.25%, whichever is lower, over the next four years.

Speaker Menin and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research did not respond to Just the News’ request for comment by publication.

Katherine Pugh is a reporter for Just the News. Follow her on X for more coverage.