RAPID CITY, S.D. — After more than a decade without a raise, elected officials in Rapid City are one step closer to receiving a significant pay increase.On Wednesday, the city’s
Legal and Finance Committee
approved a resolution to raise the annual salaries of aldermen from just under $13,000 to around $21,600, a roughly 67 percent increase. According to Rapid City Finance Director Daniel Ainslie, the raise would bring council members in line with compensation averages in similarly sized cities.
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“The last time the council members received an increase was in 2011,” Ainslie said. “It was less than a one percent increase, based on the Consumer Price Index at the time. Since then, there’s been no raise to their pay.” Ainslie noted that council members were previously offered an optional benefit to join the city’s health insurance pool, but their base salaries have remained unchanged for around 14 years.The mayor’s salary would also increase under the resolution, following the same rate of adjustment as other non-union city employees. The salary for the Rapid City Mayor is currently set at $124,849, according to a
recent Legal and Finance Committee meeting.
City staff conducted a salary review comparing Rapid City’s elected officials to those in 10 to 12 comparable municipalities. Based on population size and compensation trends, they recommended increasing council pay to around $21,600 annually.The original resolution called for the raises to take effect in 2026, but the committee amended the proposal to start the new salaries on July 1 of this year.Ainslie said that if the City Council approves the resolution, large changes will need to be made to account for the wage increases. “The current budget does not have authority for additional compensation for council members for this year,” Ainslie said. “If the council authorizes it, we would need to do a supplemental appropriation to add those funds to the council line item.” Over a full year, the cost of the new pay for the Council would be around $86,500 for the 10 aldermen.
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The full City Council will consider the resolution during its meeting on Monday, June 16. If approved, the pay raises will go into effect at the beginning of July.
