Committee approves reconsideration and advancement of 3% cost-of-living increase for nonunion city employees, to be retroactive to July 1

The committee on July 2 voted to advance a resolution authorizing a 3% cost-of-living increase for nonunion salaried employees and asked that the council consider making the pay adjustment retroactive to July 1.

Council President Kevin Maher, who requested the item be returned to the agenda, said the 3% increase was budgeted in the 2025 budget adopted last September and that the raise is less than recent CPI growth. “It is under what the CPI actually was because we're limited to only 3%,” Maher said, and asked the committee to bring the resolution back to the city council meeting on the upcoming Monday with a motion to retroactively apply the increase to July 1.

Several members voiced support. Alderman Josh Biberdorf called the prior postponement an “embarrassment” and said the appropriation is already budgeted for 2025. Alderman Bill Evans said he supports cost-of-living adjustments but criticized blanket percentage increases and argued future raises should be structured to target lower-wage employees. He nonetheless moved the motion with a second; the committee approved the request to bring the resolution back and to proceed with the retroactive application if council votes accordingly.

The committee recorded a motion to approve and the motion carried. Staff said the increase affects roughly 300 salaried employees and that collective-bargaining-unit (union) salaries are handled through separate bargaining processes.

No specific payroll implementation date beyond the requested retroactive July 1 effective date was recorded in committee; human-resources staff was noted as having provided comparative compensation information to the council in the days before the meeting.

Actions

- Aldermanic request to reconsider and advance Resolution 2025-064 (salary adjustments for nonunion benefit employees, 2025): motion made and carried at committee; committee approved forwarding the resolution to council with the recommendation that the pay change be applied retroactively to July 1 if council approves.

Next steps

The item will return to the full city council for final action; payroll changes and retroactivity would be implemented only if council adopts the resolution as recommended.