The NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) told Fox News that under the now-expired contract, the salary for a freshly minted sergeant at $98,000 is significantly lower than the top-end salary for experienced patrol officers at $115,000. The top of the scale for sergeants is only $118,000 as well, just $3,000 more than a patrol officer by comparison.
This means that hundreds of sergeants are making less than the officers they command and over their careers will lose anywhere from $80,000 to $100,000 in total earnings they would’ve made if they stayed on patrol.
Vincent Vallelong, the president of the SBA, explained, "We're going to have guys potentially in the next year, year and a half that will be making upwards of anywhere between 9 to $15,000 less than a police officer. So you're going to take a rank with more responsibility, you took a test, three tests, and at the end of the day, you're losing money."
According to the SBA, if the city were to bring sergeants pay in line by promoting them to the top of their bracket to outpace their subordinate officers it could cost the city as much as $170 million.
As reported by The New York Post, the department is losing sergeants at a rapid pace with 1,100 eligible for retirement in June and seventy already retired since January. A further 1,200 active-duty sergeants have even been forced to take second jobs to stay above water given the spiraling costs of the NYC metro.
Given the city’s decision to house illegal immigrants by shelling out $220 million to the government of Pakistan which now owns the historic Roosevelt Hotel, the SBA has questioned the city’s priorities.
“It doesn’t seem like anyone’s priorities are in the right place, because back in the ’90s, when the city needed to be turned around and we corrected crime, it was the NYPD that did it,” Vallelong told Fox News. "They're bleeding money, the city, in all the wrong places," Vallelong said. "Somebody in city governance either needs to go, or they really need to sit down and think this through and go back to basics. … Go back to basic math. Go back to basic economics."
In a post to X, Vallelong said, “We were willing to come to the table. The city wasn’t... This board is not gonna sit back and let 1,275 sergeants be left behind."“We were willing to come to the table. The city wasn’t... This board is not gonna sit back and let 1,275 sergeants be left behind."
— Sergeants Benevolent Association (@sbanypd) February 11, 2025
- NYPD SBA President Vincent Vallelong
Watch the full interview here: https://t.co/7aau5US0EJ
Tell @nycmayor that #NYPDSergeantsDeserveFairPay!
"The mayor was just up in Albany asking for more money for migrants," Vallelong said. "I know he's had meetings with the president … maybe he should ask the president to step in like Clinton did back in those years and pass a bill in order to further law enforcement and recruit people and make it more of a respectable job again."
A spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Fox News, "We are currently going through the mediation process with the SBA and are committed to coming to a fair solution that will continue to protect public safety.”
"The mayor was a sergeant at one point in time. He had to be in order to get to the point where he's at," Vallelong said. "And you would think that he would understand this more than anybody else, because I guarantee you that if push came to shove, he's not taking this rank unless he's getting compensated the right way."
