Managers Get 6.4% Raises From Mayor

By RICHARD STEIER

Mayor Bloomberg has authorized pay raises for city managers of 2 percent retroactive to Aug. 1 and 4.392 percent effective Feb. 1, 2007, closely paralleling the hikes his administration has negotiated with District Council 37 and other municipal unions since early summer.

STEPHEN M. FERRER: Will press for more.

The raises were approved slightly more than a month after the Managerial Employees' Association, an advocacy group that has no formal collective-bargaining rights, met with city negotiators to press for raises along those lines.

The speedy action by the Mayor continues his practice of increasing managers' compensation soon after a union deal is reached that he intends to serve as a pattern for the rest of the work force, a contrast with his predecessor, who often allowed for long delays in upgrading managerial salaries.

MEA President Stephen M. Ferrer said that while he was appreciative that the Mayor approved the hikes, he still intended to press for "merit increases based on objective performance evaluations, longevity increments for career managers, equity on terminal leave benefits for managerial and nonmanagerial employees, and revisions to the Managerial Pay Plan."

During an Oct. 12 phone interview, Mr. Ferrer said it was "serendipity" rather than design that produced the announcement of the hikes so soon after a $3 per paycheck dues hike was approved Sept. 27 by MEA members. That increase, which will bring dues to $12 per paycheck once it is implemented by the affected agencies, is the first since 1998, Mr. Ferrer said. Managers' salaries over that period, he noted, had gone up by 30 percent even before the latest increases were approved.