Boston City Council gives itself $12,000 raise

The City Council’s months-long hand wringing over raising its salary ended Wednesday, as the officials voted 9-4 to bump up their paychecks by 14 percent.

The 13-member board is set to see a $12,000 pay raise from $87,500 to $99,500 starting in January.

The vote came six days before the municipal election, on Nov. 3. Had councilors not taken the vote, their salaries would have gone up automatically.

The last time councilors saw a raise was in 2006. The board had been debating this latestraise for more than a year.

The 14 percent raise, proposed by Mayor Mary Walsh, was more modest than the one councilors voted in favor of last year, a 20 percent pay raise to $105,000, which Walsh vetoed.

But it was greater than the increase to $97,000 recommended by an advisory board earlier this year.

In favor were councilors Bill Linehan (South Boston), Michael Flaherty (at-large), Stephen Murphy (at-large), Salvatore LaMattina (Charlestown), Frank Baker (Dorchester), Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park), Matt O’Malley (Jamaica Plain), Tito Jackson (Roxbury) and Mark Ciommo (Allston).

Opposed were councilors Ayanna Pressley (at-large), Michelle Wu (at-large), Charles Yancey (Mattapan) and Josh Zakim (Back Bay).

There are five candidates for four at-large City Council positions in the upcoming election and there are contested races for council seats in four of the city’s nine districts.

Boston’s median household income was $53,601 in 2013,according to 2013 census data. One in five Bostonians live below the poverty line.