Mayor Bass says she'll take a pay cut as city's budget concerns continue

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says that she will take a pay cut and hold off on scheduled raises for her staff members as the city continues to address the nearly $1 billion shortfall in the budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. 

"The mayor is taking a pay cut and Mayor's Office staff are not taking their regularly scheduled cost of living adjustments office-wide in June 2025 (4%), December 2025 (2%) and June 2026 (4%)," said Zach Sedil, a spokesman for Bass' office. 

They didn't say exactly how much of a pay cut the mayor would take, nor when it would go into effect, but her annual salary is approximately $301,000. 

In April, Bass delivered her State of the City Address, laying out a $13.9 billion budget that included the elimination of thousands of city positions and more than 1,600 layoffs. While the budget is technically on par with the 2024-25 budget, Bass said that they would close the gap through layoffs and department consolidations as costs increase and revenues decrease. 

At the time, she told the city's workforce, "You are the city's greatest asset … but I want to be straight with you. My proposed budget, unfortunately, includes layoffs, which is a decision of absolute last resort."

With the personnel cuts, the proposed budget would be an increase of 8.2% over the adopted spending plan for last year's budget. 

The proposal is still being reviewed by the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee for approval. Since announcing her proposal, Bass has also visited the state capitol to lobby for a relief package of $2 billion. 

Deliberations on the proposal continue on Monday and the new fiscal year begins in July.