Baker City Council raises city manager pay to $140,000
Baker City lifted the city manager’s pay to $140,000 after earlier raises and a $20,000 bonus, putting the job above senior department heads.
The Baker City Council has raised the city manager’s pay to $140,000, adding another step in a series of compensation moves for the city’s top administrator. The increase, approved July 15, puts a hard number on how Baker City is valuing the job as council members balance leadership recruitment with the cost of running a small municipal government.
The latest raise did not come out of nowhere. In September 2024, the council unanimously approved a $5,000 raise retroactive to July 1, 2024, and a second $5,000 raise starting Jan. 1, 2025. The council later gave the manager a $20,000 bonus on June 24, 2026, showing a pattern of using pay adjustments and bonuses to keep the position moving upward.
The new salary also stands out against Baker City’s own pay scale. The city’s 2025-2026 non-represented salary schedule lists Public Works Director, Finance Director, Fire Chief and Chief of Police at monthly rates of $8,088 to $9,104. The Building Official is listed at $7,299 to $8,542 a month. At $140,000 a year, the city manager makes about $11,667 a month, placing the job above those department heads and above the rest of the city’s upper management ranks.
That gap is bigger when set against Baker City’s recent payroll history. A public salary dataset showed Baker City had 95 employees in 2024, with the highest city salary listed at $107,238. Baker City’s adopted 2024-25 budget was posted in June 2024, underscoring that the manager’s compensation is a meaningful line item in a small government that still has to cover streets, water, parks and public safety.
The city’s own older hiring records show how far the position has moved. A 2016 city manager posting listed a salary range of $98,000 to $115,000 and described Baker City as having 9,828 residents within seven square miles. A comparison document used by the City of Monmouth shows some Oregon city-manager salaries in the $146,575 to $176,000 range, which puts Baker City’s new figure below some peer-city examples but still firmly in the mid-six-figure conversation for executive municipal pay.
The city manager sits at the center of operations at 1655 1st Street, where policy turns into staffing, budgets and day-to-day administration. By raising the pay to $140,000, the council is signaling that attracting and keeping experienced leadership remains a priority, even as residents continue to watch what the city pays for that leadership.
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