New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is suing the City Council over a bill he once backed. The bill gives public school aides, called paraprofessionals, a $10,000 bonus. NY1 reported that in July 2025 he said he would be "proud to continue to support the swift passage of Intro 1261," an earlier version of it. He said the job "simply doesn't pay enough." Now he is fighting the bonus in court. Chalkbeat called this an "awkward position" for the mayor. NY1 called it a "difficult political position."
Why did he change course? NY1 reported that Mamdani now says the one-time bonuses break the state's Taylor Law. That law governs public unions. NY1 reported it is likely to be the heart of the city's case.
Here is how it happened. The Council passed the bill on July 16, 2026. Chalkbeat reported the vote was 49 to 0. Mamdani had 30 days to sign or veto it. He did neither. So it became law on August 19, 2026, Chalkbeat and Gothamist reported. Hours later, his administration sued the Council, The 74 reported.
Paraprofessionals are school aides. Chalkbeat reported they usually help students with disabilities. They are among the lowest-paid workers in the city's schools. The sources give slightly different pay figures. Chalkbeat and The 74 reported a starting salary of about $33,000 a year. Gothamist reported about $34,000. NY1 reported around $32,000. The top of the pay scale also varies. The 74 reported it tops out near $57,000 for an aide with a bachelor's degree and 15 years of service. Gothamist reported it caps around $54,000.
The 74 reported one way to see the gap. Over the past 20 years, starting pay for aides rose by nearly $12,000. In that same time, raises for the highest-paid principals totaled $86,000.
The law gives full-time aides four payments of $2,500 during the 2026-27 school year, The 74 reported. Chalkbeat reported the payments will go out between January and August 2027. Gothamist reported the first payment was set for January.
The Council estimates the total cost at about $325 million, Chalkbeat reported. That covers roughly 25,000 eligible aides. It also covers substitute aides. Their pay is set by how many days they work. Try the math for full-time aides alone. A $10,000 bonus for 25,000 people comes to about $250 million. So that group by itself does not reach $325 million. The dossier ties the gap to substitute aides. But it gives no dollar figure for them. So these sources do not show exactly how the total adds up. (Gothamist reported that roughly 26,000 aides were set to get the first payment in January.)
City Hall says the fight is about process, not pay. Collective bargaining is when a union and the city talk over pay and benefits. Chalkbeat reported that mayoral spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach called aides "indispensable." Chalkbeat reported he said they "have not been fairly compensated." Gothamist reported he said the city agrees aides are underpaid. But he said the law sets a "dangerous precedent." He said it lets "politicians bypass workers and their unions and dictate the terms of employment themselves." He added, "The City is filing a lawsuit to protect the right of every union to negotiate on behalf of its members." The 74 reported the lawsuit warns that other public workers could seek similar payments from the Council.
The United Federation of Teachers represents the aides. The union disagrees with the city. Chalkbeat reported that union officials wrote to members, "We are prepared to engage in a legal fight for the RESPECT check and the paraprofessionals who keep our schools running." The 74 reported the union says the bill was written carefully so it would not break the city's collective bargaining law. The 74 reported that union President Michael Mulgrew called the city's claim that it was suing to protect employees "a joke." NY1 reported that Mulgrew said the city did not ask for an injunction "because they know they can't win it."
Council members also pushed back. NY1 reported that Council Speaker Julie Menin said, "We will vigorously defend this law." Gothamist reported Menin said the law is "both the right thing to do and the fiscally responsible thing to do." Eric Dinowitz chairs the Council's education committee. Chalkbeat reported he said the measure passed 49 to 0 because members "across every borough and every political perspective agreed these workers deserve better."
The union and Council members link the low pay to "pattern bargaining," The 74 reported. Under this city policy, the raises won for one union's contract set the pattern for the others. They say that once a pattern is set, it is hard to win better terms for another union. The 74 reported the new law lets the Council renew the payments each year. That can go on as long as the schools have an aide shortage, or until the city changes pattern bargaining.
The size of that shortage varies by source. Chalkbeat reported roughly 1,600 vacancies. NY1 reported more than 1,800. Chalkbeat reported these gaps can seriously hurt students with disabilities. Some of them cannot ride school buses without an aide.
Gothamist reported that the mayor's office wants to "permanently address this inequity" in talks with the union. NY1 reported that Mulgrew says the union is making progress with the mayor and top officials, but not with the city agencies that handle labor relations.