By Linda Scott
Watertown Resident
And If Comparisons Were Made (A Quick Comparison of Administrator Salaries for 37 Massachusetts Cities and Towns)
This is a followup to “Answers and Questions about City Manager’s New Contract”
I received quite an array of comments to my letter, “Answers and Questions,” but one very simple response got me thinking. One resident said quite simply when referring to Mr. Proakis’ new salary, “That’s too much.”
I thought, is it? We were told that this “compensation package” fell within the range of other administrators from other municipalities. It was in the middle of the pack. I thought that I’d put that remark to the test. Then you can be the judge.
It has taken a while to gather information and to wait for various communities to pass their 2027 city budgets. Unfortunately, some communities are still struggling with the process.
Some of you may remember the Classification and Compensation Study the City of Watertown commissioned and was completed in February of 2024. It was quite expensive, and it’d be a shame to use it just once (that’s my “Scottish” coming out).
First, here’s a link to that study: https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=86196&repo=r-5ece562
It compared 15 cities and towns to Watertown for the purposes of making sure that our City jobs and their compensation were both fair and competitive. This study lead to significant non-union employee pay raises. There were criteria selected for inclusion in the comparison group.
Below are some quotes from the study:
“Nine (9) factors were used for the evaluation of Watertown’s positions:
1) Preparation and Training
2) Experience Required
3) Decision Making and Independent Judgment
4) Responsibility for Policy Development
5) Planning of Work
6) Contact with Others
7) Work of Others (Supervision Exercised)
8) Working Conditions
9) Use of Technology/Specialized Equipment”
“To be determined a comparable community, a community needed to 1) fall within the relevant
range on all nine criteria and 2) be within 20 miles of Watertown.”
“The next component of the Classification and Compensation Study involved establishing external competitiveness. A group of communities comparable to the City was established. The Consultants started with Massachusetts communities in Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk Counties. After that, a specific set of comparison criteria was applied to each community. The
City Manager’s Office added two additional criteria to the comparable community analysis – population density and commercial, industrial, and personal property (CIP) assessed value – to better reflect the complexity of our work in Watertown.”
Below is that list of comparable communities. I’ve ascertained the base salary for each Mayor, City Manager or City Administrator for comparison of base salaries. Why just the base salary? Because what is added on to the base is as varied as the administrators themselves. The one constant is the base salary. So let’s start comparing.
These are the cities that were chosen by the study for comparison to Watertown: Arlington, Braintree, Brookline, Burlington, Dedham, Medford, Natick, Needham, Newton, Norwood, Saugus, Somerville, Wakefield, Waltham, Woburn.
Here’s a chart of where the different administrators fall on base salary for Fiscal Year 2027, going highest to lowest. Watertown’s fiscal year 2027 starts on July 1st of 2026 and ends on June 30th of 2027. Assume all salaries are for the FY 2027 budget. Whenever the base salary listed is for Fiscal Year 2026, not 2027, I’ll note it.
Comparison of Cities and Towns in Compensation Study
(Highest to Lowest Administrator Salary)
City/Town Administrator Base Salary Comments
Burlington Town Administrator $267,000 FY27
Watertown City Manager $255,668 FY27
Natick Town Administrator $252,159 FY27
Brookline Town Administrator $245,998 FY27
Norwood General Manager $245,175 FY27
Needham Town Administrator $245,140 FY27
Saugus Town Manager $235,758 FY27
Arlington Town Manager $234,090 FY26; new amount to be voted on late in July
Wakefield Town Administrator $224,000 FY27 there will be an opportunity for merit pay increase in October .25% – .5%
Dedham Town Manager $221,898 FY27
Somerville Mayor $180,696 FY27
Waltham Mayor $174,892 FY27
Newton Mayor $155,000 FY27
Medford Mayor $146,407 FY27
Braintree Mayor $125,000 FY27
Woburn Mayor $123,000 FY27
Watertown Ranking (1 being highest, 16 being lowest): Population: 10 out of 16. Area: 16 out of 16; City Manager Salary: 2 out of 16
And, Another Way to Look at This:
I was reminded that the above cities and towns, although used for comparison salary-wise do not all share the same form of government, and that can determine administrator salaries. For instance, in Waltham, the mayor’s salary is determined by Sec. 2-75.4 of the Waltham City Code. It was explained to me that this ordinance stipulates that the Mayor’s compensation is adjusted annually based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) Boston, Massachusetts. I decided, fair enough, so I went back to compare only those cities with the same form of government.
According to the Mass Municipal Association, there are 12 cities and towns that meet that criteria:
“Twelve communities in Massachusetts have a city form of government (a City/Town Council), but do not have a Mayor; they have a city (or “town”) manager as their chief administrative officer.”
Here’s another table that uses form of government, as defined by the Mass Municipal Association, as the criteria, from highest to lowest base salary:
Comparison of Cities and Towns by Same Form of Government
(Highest to Lowest Administrator Salary)
City/Town Administrator Base Salary Comment
Chelsea City Manager $266,586 FY27
Watertown City Manager $255,668 FY27
Franklin Town Administrator $253,395 FY27
Randolph Town Manager $231,802 FY27
Barnstable Town Manager $229,500 FY 27
Winthrop Town Manager $227,075 FY27
Bridgewater Town Manager $224,159 FY27
Amherst Town Manager $213,784 FY27
North Attleborough Town Manager $207,500 FY27-FY31
Palmer Town Manager $181,867 FY27
Southbridge Town Manager $172,446 FY27
East Longmeadow Town Manager $158,017 FY27
Watertown Ranking (1 being highest and 12 being lowest): Population: 4 out of 12. Area: 10 out of 12. City Manager Salary: 2 out of 12
It’s getting harder and harder to think that our City Manager’s salary is in the middle of the pack. Maybe our City Council considered “the big boys and girls” in their calculation? Here are the 10 biggest cities in the Commonwealth (with Watertown included for comparison), ranked highest to lowest by administrator’s base salary:
Comparison of the 10 Biggest Massachusetts Cities Administrator Salaries (Plus Watertown)
(Highest to Lowest Administrator Salary)
City/Town Administrator Base Salary Comment
Cambridge City Manager $336,000 FY27
Worcester City Manager $314,080 FY27
Lowell City Manager $276,231 FY27
Watertown City Manager $255,668 FY27
Boston Mayor $250,000 FY27
Brockton Mayor $197,684 FY27
Springfield Mayor $175,000 FY27
New Bedford Mayor $173,719 FY27
Quincy Mayor $150,943 FY27
Lynn Mayor $145,000 FY 2027 not passed yet
Fall River Mayor $118,688 FY 2027 not passed yet
Watertown Ranking (1 being highest and 11 being lowest): Population: 11 out of 11. Area: 11 out of 11 City Manager Salary: 4 out of 11. Watertown comes in last in both population and area and comes in at fourth place in Administrator salary, above the mayor of Boston! (Boston Population: 671,635; Watertown Population: 35,710)
So, ranked by Compensation Study and form of government, Watertown’s City Manager’s base salary comes in second, and by largest Cities in the Commonwealth, Watertown’s City Manager’s base salary comes in fourth.
As I mentioned in the beginning, base salary is just the common ground that they all start at. I’ve noticed in various Administrator contracts there are extras like getting the use of a city car, for example. One town administrator, in addition to the base salary, gets $11,100/year in deferred compensation. Our city manager, in addition to his base salary, will get $15,000/year in deferred compensation in his new contract. (For a complete picture of the Proakis contract, see the Watertown News letter link in the first paragraph and go to the end).
As with all numbers, there are a variety of ways to interpret this survey data and many more questions that could be asked. For instance, how do these administrators’ job descriptions compare? (Although I’d imagine in just sheer volume and complexity of work, the mayor of Boston would have most other communities beat, never mind Watertown). I welcome others to add to our knowledge.
So, you be the judge. Is the salary agreement that our City Council entered into with our City Manager in the middle of the pack? Is it too much, too little? Or is it just right?
Lastly, I’d like to extend my personal thanks to all of the Massachusetts city and town employees who helped me to collect the data for these surveys … all of the city clerks, human resource people, town treasurers, payroll personnel, city administrators and their executive assistants, who efficiently filled my requests for information and went above and beyond to be as accurate, transparent and helpful as possible. You are great examples of what public employees should be!