The Birmingham City Council is considering a pay raise for its employees that would cost the city over $13 million if approved.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin suggested the 5% “cost of living adjustment” for city employees on Tuesday at a Budget and Finance Committee meeting. According to reports, the raise would cost the city $13.5 million.
Though the cost of living in Alabama is relatively low, the cost of living has been on the rise around the country due to rapid inflation.
This isn’t the first recent pay raise for Birmingham city employees, however.
The city council already passed its largest operating budget ever for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 in July, amounting to a whopping $517 million. The budget included its own 5% pay raise and added benefits. The pay raise and added benefits totaled an additional $56 million for city employees.
“We want to be in a position to continue to invest in our employees,” Woodfin said at the meeting.
Woodfin’s director of communications, Rick Journey, told 1819 News that the pay raise would not apply to elected officials, as the mayor and city council’s pay is set by the Alabama Legislature, not the city.
1819 asked Journey where the money for the raise would come from but did not receive an answer.
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