In July 2026, a rumor spread that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was pushing for a 20% raise in his salary and the salaries of other city officials.
The claim circulated on social media, including on X and Facebook. One example of such a post on X suggested it was hypocritical for a politician who set out to tax the rich to request a 20% salary increase for himself (archived):
As we outline below, the claim that Mamdani pushed for this raise was false. While it was true that the City Council was set to vote on a 18.2% salary increase, spokespeople for the mayor and for Council Speaker Julie Menin told Snopes they would not accept it, even if the bill becomes law. For this reason, we have rated this claim false.
"I can confirm the mayor is committed to not taking a pay raise during his time in office," Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said in an emailed statement.
"Speaker Julie Menin will not be accepting the proposed pay raise," a spokesperson for Menin told Snopes.
We also contacted the office of City Council Deputy Speaker Natasha Williams and the offices of the five borough presidents to ask if they would accept the raise. We await their responses.
The claim began to circulate after a commission published a report in June 2026 recommending an 18.2% increase in salaries for several New York City officials, including the mayor, the Council speaker and members, the comptroller, borough presidents and the district attorney. These officials had not received a raise since 2016.
After the report's publication, Williams introduced a bill to raise these salaries to meet the commission's recommendation. The bill was scheduled to be introduced on July 16, 2026.
However, several reports from reputable local news outlets confirmed neither Mamdani nor Menin would accept the raise even if the Council approves it. It wasn't clear whether other city officials listed in the report would accept it.
For further reading, Snopes investigated several rumors about Mamdani, including the claim that New York City's famous Jewish deli, Katz's, had banned him.