D.C.’s likely mayor-to-be is turning down what could be a $40,000 pay raise.
Ward 4 council member Janeese Lewis George — the Democratic nominee in next Tuesday’s mayoral election — tells The Washington Sun that she opposes a bill moving through the D.C. Council that would bump the mayoral salary next year to $290,000, up from the $250,000 that the current mayor, Muriel Bowser, has been making since 2023.
“Families in this city are stretched on child care, housing and their utility bills, and I am not going to ask them to pay more for the job of the mayor,” she said. “My focus is on lowering costs for the hardworking people of D.C.”
The bill was quietly introduced this month by At-Large council member Anita Bonds, who said on Wednesday that the raise would “better reflect modern cost realities.”
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Lewis George says she did not request the measure, and Bowser’s office confirmed it also didn’t come from them. But it mirrors the last bill authorizing a pay raise for the mayor that the council passed in late 2022.
The pay for D.C.’s chief executive cannot be increased during their four-year term, so any push to do so has to happen in the two months between when an election takes place and the mayor assumes office. Adjusting the mayor’s pay also impacts the council chair and attorney general, both of whom, by law, have to make $10,000 less than the mayor.
Council Chair Phil Mendelson declined to specify whether he supports or spurred the introduction of the current bill. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office did not comment.
Bowser’s pay puts her among the 10 most well-remunerated mayors in the U.S., with the chief executives of cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco standing ahead of her. Still, the role of D.C. mayor is distinct to those of many other big-city leaders. D.C. has no official mayoral residence, for one, and the city also operates as a county and state.
D.C.’s mayor also isn’t the highest-paid employee in the government. Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll, for example, makes $319,000 a year, while Maurice Edington, the president of the University of the District of Columbia, makes $310,000.
That Lewis George turned down the pay raise likely reflects her mayoral campaign’s focus on affordability for D.C. residents, as well as an understanding of the problematic optics of taking home a bigger salary as the city faces leaner budgets to come — including a deficit next year that could reach $800 million. Earlier this year, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined an 18% salary bump that was approved by city lawmakers, saying that voters had never told him “their concern is that the mayor makes too little.”
The median household income in D.C. in 2025 was $107,600. Council members currently make $171,000 a year.
The debate over the D.C. mayor’s salary also comes at a politically fraught time. On Wednesday — the same day that Bonds’ committee held a hearing on her bill — hundreds of unionized city employees rallied outside the Wilson Building to protest what they say is a proposed contract for some 10,000 workers that would see no cost-of-living adjustments at all for the coming years — on top of not having received one over the last year.
Bonds’ bill would also provide new, annual cost-of-living increases.
“Public service deserves fair compensation at every level of government, but fairness cannot be reserved for those at the top,” said Joey Davis, the president of AFGE Local 1975, which represents some 1,200 workers in agencies ranging from the Department of Public Works to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
“The mayor does not collect the trash, the mayor does not fix the roads or perform the countless daily functions that allow the city to function,” he added. “City employees do … and the city employees who make that possible deserve compensation that reflects their contributions.”
Managing these demands from D.C.’s unionized workers will be one of many challenges facing Lewis George, who was widely supported by organized labor ahead of the competitive June primary. While D.C. has recently finalized new contracts and pay raises for teachers and police officers, there’s little money left in the city’s Workforce Investments Account — which is used to pay out the cost of new contracts — over the next year. As of this week the account has $130 million in it, with $122 million already set aside for a new contract for D.C. firefighters.
“We are not extra. We are not optional. We are essential,” said Robert Alston, the president of AFSCME Local 2921, which represents educational aides in D.C. Public Schools. “It isn’t only about a paycheck, but it’s about our dignity, our respect and fairness. This is about recognizing the value of the people who show up every day.”
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