At Miami City Hall, a maze of union-negotiated raises, automatic “step” increases and manager-approved merit boosts has turned employee pay into the main character of the city budget. Salaries and benefits now eat up roughly three-quarters of operating spending, even as the overall operating budget has swelled into the billion-dollar range. The result is a fast-growing lineup of six-figure city paychecks and mounting pressure on elected officials to answer for it.
According to WLRN, Miami’s operating budget has climbed about 57% over five years to more than $1.8 billion. Since 2021, salaries alone are up roughly 41% to about $591.5 million, while employee benefits jumped roughly 62% to $356.2 million. Together, those two categories now account for approximately 77% of the operating budget. Mayor Eileen Higgins, who campaigned on conducting a “deep dive” into budget growth, is now under pressure to show what that review will actually change.
The Coconut Grove Spotlight, as cited by WLRN, urges residents to “just follow the paychecks” to see how the city’s layered raises stack up. The reporting walks through salary histories showing Assistant Director Leon Michel is scheduled to earn about $250,422.68 this year, roughly a 50% increase over five years. Oracle systems administrator Guy Marcus’s pay has moved into the low $200,000s, while procurement official Yadissa Calderón now earns roughly $198,000. The report also notes that former City Manager Arthur Noriega stepped down in January after extending some discretionary raises to non-bargaining employees.
Budget By The Numbers
City budget documents put the proposed FY 2025–26 operating budget at $1,837,585,000 and list the Police Department’s operating budget at about $415,709,000, much of that tied to personnel costs, according to the City of Miami Budget in Brief. The same document breaks out salaries and wages at roughly $589.5 million and employee benefits at about $356.2 million, figures that together consume a majority of the General Fund. With numbers that large, even small percentage bumps translate into big shifts in actual dollars.
How Raises Stack
According to the city’s own budget notes, the surge is not being driven by a hiring spree. The workforce has grown only modestly. Instead, the growth is coming from layered pay mechanisms: union-negotiated across-the-board raises, annual anniversary “step” increases and discretionary merit adjustments that managers can approve administratively, as detailed in the City of Miami Budget in Brief. When unions secure multi-year deals and city leaders match those increases for non-bargaining staff, the costs compound and squeeze out room for other priorities…