Chicago’s aldermen who represent the city’s 17 Black wards, known as the Chicago City Black Aldermen, are poised to receive a salary increase that will bring their annual pay to $152,016, according to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2025 budget proposal scheduled to go before the City Council in December.
According to the plan, Mayor Johnson will forgo a raise and keep his $221,052 annual salary. But most of the city’s 50 aldermen will accept the increase, including newly appointed Alderman Walter R. Burnett (27th), who has been in office for just three months.
The raises come as Chicago faces a projected $1 billion deficit. Mayor Johnson aims to close the shortfall with his controversial corporate head tax on companies with more than 200 employees. On November 17, the City Council’s Finance Committee rejected the mayor’s $16.6 billion budget—which includes the head tax—placing the administration’s financial plan in question ahead of the full Council vote. The committee is chaired by Alderman Pat Dowell (3rd), who opposes the tax. Alderman Jason Ervin (28th) supports it.
Business leaders and critics have urged the mayor to reduce staffing and program spending to help address the deficit.
Salary increases for aldermen, the mayor, the city treasurer and the city clerk are automatically tied to inflation through the Consumer Price Index, unless individual officials opt out. City officials are slated to receive a more than 4 percent bump in 2025 unless they decline it, according to the budget department.
Under a city ordinance, these raises would take effect January 1, 2026.
One alderman set to receive the increase is Burnett, who was appointed in September to replace his father, former Alderman Walter Burnett, Jr. Out of the city’s 50 aldermen, only two—Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd)—have opted to skip the raise. Both declined raises last year as well.
Budget documents also show that City Clerk Anna Valencia and Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin will accept raises that bring their salaries to $171,426. Both officials accepted raises in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2023 budget. Conyears-Ervin said at the time that the treasurer’s position had not received a salary increase since 2005.
Among the aldermen representing Chicago’s 17 Black wards who will receive the raise are five freshman aldermen serving their first term: Lamont Robinson (4th), Desmon Yancy (5th), William Hall (6th), Ronnie Mosley (21st) and Burnett (27th).
In 2022, about 15 Black aldermen earned $142,772 after accepting a 9.62 percent raise tied to inflation. Those included freshman aldermen Stephanie Coleman (16th), Jeanette Taylor (20th) and Monique Scott (24th).
The upcoming raise would mark the second consecutive increase for many aldermen in recent years. In September 2021, most Black aldermen accepted a 5.5 percent raise that brought their salaries to $130,248.
Historically, aldermen have been among the highest-paid public officials within Chicago’s nearly 30,000-employee workforce.