Commission adopts pay raises for city leaders

The Honolulu Salary Commission voted 5-1 Tuesday to adopt pay increases of 12.56% for the city’s mayor and department heads and a more than 64% pay bump to members of the City Council for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

As adopted under the city’s new salary schedule, the mayor’s annual salary would rise to $209,856 from its current $186,432. Likewise, the yearly salary for the City Council chairperson — the seat that leads the nine-member panel — would see its current pay of $76,968 boosted to $123,292, a 60.2% jump, while an individual Council member’s salary would get a 64.4% pay bump to $113,292, up from $68,904.

Like the mayor, elected and appointed department heads and their deputies also would see 12.56% pay raises. They include $200,712 for the managing director’s position over the current pay of $178,320, and the elected prosecuting attorney’s pay would rise to $198,888 from the position’s current salary of $176,000. The chief of police would see a bump in pay to $231,648 from the current annual salary of $205,800, while the fire chief would get $224,304 rather than the current $199,272.

“In this action, the Commission prioritizes attracting the best and brightest of future generations to serve the needs of the city and paying living wages competitive within their fields,” the panel stated in a written release after the vote.

The Salary Commission’s majority justified the pay increases due, in part, to the full-time nature of the job responsibilities, the need for the city to recruit and retain quality workers to local government jobs and to restore a pre-pandemic historical pattern of granting yearly salary increases to civil servants in Hawaii Government Employees Association Bargaining Unit 13, which represents the bulk of unionized professional and scientific employees in the city as well as the state.

Appointed by the mayor and Council to set city employee salaries, the panel also stated the “salaries of Council members suffer from significant wage disparity relative to the salaries of other city employees. Honolulu Council members are currently paid less than Council members from Maui County, Council members from Hawaii County, State legislators, and even the majority of the city’s legislative staff.”

To arrive at its decision, the commission noted it “collected information and testimony” from the sitting Council members themselves. The panel found that the Council members “work well over 40 hours per week, at times reaching 60 to 80 hours” and that “the job of a Council member requires each member to be on-duty, ready to respond to any member of their constituency or general public, 24/7.”

But Salary Commissioner Coralee Kubo opposed the proposed salary increases, reportedly saying she could not support the pay hikes because of the potential negative impacts to local workers.

The Salary Commission’s resolution for pay raises will take effect 60 days after its adoption unless rejected entirely or in part by a three-quarters vote of the Council’s entire membership, according to the City Charter. On Wednesday, city staffers could not confirm whether the full City Council will review the new salary schedule at its next regular meeting on May 17.

Nola Miyasaki, director of the city’s Department of Human Resources, previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the Salary Commission had not recommended pay adjustments for department heads and the city’s elected officials in the past three years. She added most of the city’s 21 department directors earn an average annual salary of $166,560.

Meanwhile, other actions may occur with regard to the future of city salaries in Honolulu.

On April 15, Salary Commission Chair Malia Espinda requested the Council authorize $100,000 for the development of a new salary study — as recommended by the commission’s subcommittee — as well as gain support from the Council’s administrative services officer and Office of Council Services to develop and execute a request for proposals “for a qualified third party expert to conduct the salary study.”

If approved, the action would not affect the city’s upcoming 2024 fiscal year operating budget — proposed at $3.41 billion — which is still under City Council scrutiny prior to its possible adoption in early June.

However, the requested salary study does pave the way for potential pay increases for city workers in later years and could help fill the city’s stated 3,000 vacancies in its workforce.

By the numbers

Pay increases adopted by the Honolulu Salary Commision to go into effect July 1.

$209,856

Mayor’s annual salary, currently $186,432

$123,292

City Council chairperson’s annual salary, currently $76,968

$231,648

Chief of police annual salary, currently $205,800