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The fight for better pay for New York City’s paraprofessionals, the classroom aides who work alongside students with disabilities, will take a key step on Thursday that could make raises a reality before the end of the year.
Legislation supported by the New York City teachers union that would give paraprofessionals an immediate $10,000 annual raise is expected to pass a vote in the Civil Service and Labor committee Thursday, clearing the way for a vote from the full City Council.
Introduced by Manhattan council member Keith Powers, the bill is co-sponsored by 47 of the council’s 51 members, making it likely to pass its next hurdle.
The raises would bring some immediate economic relief to thousands of paraprofessionals, whose starting annual salary of $32,000 forces many to work second and third jobs to stay afloat and makes it difficult to recruit new candidates, according to paraprofessionals and United Federation of Teachers officials. There were roughly 1,400 vacant paraprofessional positions last year, according to Education Department figures, leaving students with disabilities unable to access critical services and support.
Raises would also add a major new line item to the city’s education budget — costing an estimated $260 million a year, lawmakers said in January.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who ran a campaign centered on affordability and won the endorsement of the teachers union in the general election, has expressed his support for the legislation.
“When it comes to paraprofessionals, we have so many vacant positions because these positions simply do not pay enough,” he said at a mayoral debate in June. “I support legislation in the council … which would create a recurring annual bonus so we can actually fill those positions.”
The bill was originally scheduled for a hearing next month, making it unlikely to pass before the end of the calendar year and forcing the process to start over, union officials said. But the hearing was recently moved up. “We’ve got to get these paraprofessionals paid, so we are trying to act with urgency here,” said Powers.
Using legislation to circumvent collective bargaining
The effort is notable for using the legislative process to achieve a raise for city employees, rather than the collective bargaining municipal unions conduct with the city government when contracts are renewed. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said in January that any pay raises should be worked out through collective bargaining and noted that paraprofessionals received a contract in 2023 that runs until 2027.
Another Adams spokesperson said officials will share their views on the bill during Thursday’s hearing and didn’t immediately say whether Adams would veto it. Adams, who leaves office Jan. 1, recently vetoed several pieces of legislation passed by the council.
Powers said he’s confident that the bill has enough support to override a mayoral veto if one comes.
Teachers union President Michael Mulgrew and other union leaders have been sounding the alarm over the past year about a paraprofessional shortage.
Some union members critical of Mulgrew — including paraprofessionals — believe the legislation was an effort to shore up support in a closely contested union election earlier this year. Union leaders should have won the raises through collective bargaining, those critics say.
“I’m not against paraprofessionals getting more money, it’s just the method,” said Marie Wausnock, a Staten Island paraprofessional who cofounded a union caucus slate called Fix Para Pay that is largely opposed to Mulgrew’s Unity caucus.
“I find it incredible a union president is taking this ask outside of collective bargaining, which is against every rule in the unionist book,” Wausnock said.
She said the pay bump would make an immediate economic difference for her and many other paraprofessionals. But she noted it won’t count toward pensions, and she worries that city lawmakers will change their mind about supporting such a large annual expense.
“It’s not a fix,” she said.
Teachers union officials say this approach was necessary because the “pattern bargaining” system that ensures municipal employees with different job titles get the same annual percent raises meant that wages for paras continued to fall further behind those of higher-paid employees like principals.
From 2005 to 2025, the starting salary for paraprofessionals increased by about $12,000, while wages for top principals rose by $86,000, according to a union analysis.
Melissa Arnold Lyon, a professor at the University at Albany studying education and labor politics, said the move fits into a larger pattern of education labor unions across the country using legislatures to win raises.
She added that public sector unions in New York might feel additional pressure to look outside of the collective bargaining process because of the state’s Taylor Law, which prohibits strikes by public sector unions, limiting their leverage in bargaining.
“It is quite difficult to reframe the base salary in New York state in particular, because of that tradition and the legal structure,” she said.
A difficult job becomes even harder
Tonia Calvo, a veteran paraprofessional who has worked in city schools for nearly two decades, said the job, while always challenging, has felt increasingly unsustainable in the wake of the pandemic, as student needs intensified and the cost of living soared.
“One woman that I work with was … trying to avoid being evicted, one was talking about paying off her car just so that she can come to work,” she said. She often meets paraprofessionals who have taken on second jobs at places like Target and ShopRite “because their salary is not enough to afford to live in this city.”
Calvo worries it’s becoming increasingly difficult to recruit new candidates unless they have other financial support.
The annual pay bump would start at around $10,800 for 2025, and would rise to $12,000 by 2030, according to the union. For Calvo, the money would go toward helping pay off her children’s student loans.
For many of her colleagues, it would allow them to stop working nights, to add a couple of “goodies” to their grocery shopping, and attend training sessions to get better at their work, she said.
“I think they’re scared to hope for more,” she said, “because they’re so used to getting less.”
Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org
