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NYPD detectives have overwhelmingly ratified a five-year contract agreement with the city that secures a nearly 19-percent compounded pay raise through the life of the deal.
The contract, retroactive to June 1, 2022, brings increases of 3.25 percent in each of the first two years, of 3.5 percent in the third and fourth years and of 4 percent starting in June 2026.
Nearly 95 percent of detectives who cast a ballot approved the deal in a vote that concluded last week. Of the 5,392 detectives who could vote, 92 percent did, according to Detectives Endowment Association.
The DEA’s president, Paul DiGiacomo, expressed satisfaction with the deal, even as attrition continues to reduce his union's members. “It's been a real honor to represent New York City detectives. They do a tremendous job, not only here in New York City, but they're also working in places all over the world to keep this country safe as well,” he said last week.
The financial package’s terms are similar to those offered to other uniformed unions, including those representing sergeants, lieutenants and captains and the FDNY’s firefighters and officers. Unions representing the Correction Department's officers, captains and assistant deputy wardens and Sanitation’s officers and chiefs were also offered those terms following negotiations that concluded in June. The DEA and other uniformed unions then met with city Labor Commissioner Renee Campion and her team to negotiate items unique to the various bargaining units.
Among other provisions, DiGiacomo and his bargaining team negotiated a reduction in the number of steps to reach top pay, and also injected money directly into the remaining steps of the pay scale.
The union also secured increases in longevity payments at the five-, 15- and 20-year intervals corresponding to the same percentages as the base-wage hikes.
DiGiacomo said the union was able to negotiate additional items with no givebacks or concessions.
“And we were able to enhance every health benefit that detectives have right now,” he said.
DiGiacomo said the union and city labor officials would take up the issue of “uncaptured” overtime — those instances when detectives are called to address cases when they are off the clock — in the coming weeks to determine how it can be included in future negotiations.
The DEA said it would notify members as soon as it gets word from the city on the timeline for retroactive pay.
The detectives union, like other NYPD officer ranks, has lost hundreds of men and women to quits and retirements in the last few years, with the attrition having “a tremendous impact” on major crime investigations, DiGiacomo said earlier this year. He’s hopeful the new contract, however, could help replenish his ranks. A promotion exam is scheduled for the next few weeks.
“The raises are important,” DiGiacomo said last week. He credited Mayor Eric Adams for recognizing as much. “Given the instability right now in the city and the financial future of the city, I think it was important to get [the contract] done and to get New York City detectives the raise they truly deserve.”
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