Who’s Really Getting Paid in Southern Arizona?
There is always a lot of talk about the budget and salary on the political side, but have you ever actually sat back and looked at the numbers? Budget aside, lets just look at the payscales comparisons of Tucson vs. Phoenix & Pima County vs. Maricopa County, then stacking it all against frontline pay.
Public service is supposed to be about service. But if you follow the money, you’ll find a different story: executive premiums at the top, board stipends that quietly ratchet up, and the workers who keep the doors open and the public safe have to get burnt out on overtime and differentials to make ends meet.
This is a simple, sourced breakdown of what leaders earn in Tucson (City) and Pima County compared to counterparts in Phoenix (City) and Maricopa County, and then compared to the salary of the people actually doing the work: firefighters, medics, police, and facilities crews.
Elected pay: Tucson & Pima vs. Phoenix & Maricopa
Mayors & City Councils
- Tucson (Prop 413, Nov 2023) tied elected salary to county supervisors:
• Mayor = 1.25 × Pima County Supervisor salary (effectively $96–97k when the 2025 supervisor rate kicked in)
• Councilmembers = Supervisor salary (now $96.6k)
Prop 413 passed, and the raise took effect Dec. 4, 2023; the linkage kicks up as state-mandated supervisor salaries rise. - Phoenix (Prop 489, Nov 2024) raised elected salary to:
• Mayor $103,840
• Councilmembers $77,000.
What that means: In absolute dollars, Tucson’s mayor is now within a few thousand dollars of Phoenix’s mayor, despite Phoenix being roughly three times Tucson’s population within city limits and far larger by budget and footprint. Tucson council salaries (linked to county supervisors) now exceed Phoenix council salaries by 25%.
County Boards (Supervisors)
As of Jan. 1, 2025, Arizona statute A.R.S. §11-419 set county supervisor salaries to $96,600 in counties with ≥500,000 people. That covers both Pima and Maricopa, so they’re the same now. (Prior rates had been $76,600, which is why you’ll see older stories quoting that number.)
Pima county population: 1.1 million, Land size: 9189 sq. mi.
Maricopa county population: 4.6 million, Land size: 9,224 sq. mi.
So when looking on the land size, the salary comparison is accurate, but when you look at the population size, there is a huge difference showing that Pima County officials either make too much, or Maricopa County officials aren’t paid enough.
Top administrators: city and county CEOs
City Managers
- Tucson: Former City Manager Mike Ortega was raised to $300,000 base salary in 2022; in 2024 the council appointed Tim Thomure as city manager.
- Phoenix: City Manager Jeff Barton’s total compensation for 2024 was reported at ~$431,734; in September 2025 the council voted to bring back former manager Ed Zuercher at ~$415,000.
City of Tucson population: 554k, Land size: 242 sq. mi.
City of Phoenix population: 1.6 million, Land size: 518 sq. mi.
So the manager of Tucson gets about 3/4 of the salary the manager of Phoenix makes, Tucson mayor gets a few thousand less than Phoenix mayor, yet Phoenix has 3x the population and double the land size.
Make that make sense.
County chief administrators
- Pima County Administrator (Jan Lesher): $330,000 base (contract approved Jan. 2025), plus benefits and deferred comp.
- Maricopa County Manager (Jen Pokorski): $290,000 base (contract approved Apr. 2023). Public payroll aggregates show ~$290k–$304k typical reporting.
Bottom line: Pima County’s top unelected executive now earns more than Maricopa’s counterpart in base pay, even though Maricopa is far larger by population and budget. Phoenix’s city manager compensation sits well above Tucson’s, which is what you’d expect given scale.
The “people who keep the doors open”: front-line pay
Here’s where the contrast bites. These are the workers who face risk, shift work, heat, and hazard, and who are often told to “make it up in overtime”, when it is even allowed.
Police (entry / post-academy)
- Tucson Police (TPD): City recruiting lists starting salary at $61,235/yr ($29.44/hr) with some pages also listing $63,290/yr ($30.43/hr). Differentials and specialty pay add on top.
- Phoenix Police (PPD): $33.72/hr ($70,138/yr) at recruit, $35.75/hr ($74,360/yr) upon graduation; hiring bonus and differentials advertised.
Fire (recruit / post-academy)
- Tucson Fire (TFD): $20.43/hr during academy; $49,984/yr after completion (base, before overtime/steps).
- Phoenix Fire: City’s current salary range report shows Firefighter (Recruit) min–max $32,635–$50,627 annually; specialty roles and paramedic assignment pay add differentials.
Facilities / maintenance (examples)
- City of Tucson: The FY25 classification plan lists Facilities Maintenance Specialist (G104) at $19.97–$34.44/hr; Water Quality Analyst (G105) $21.96–$37.88/hr, indicative of skilled-trades ranges.
Bottom line: Entry-level or early-step public safety salary in Tucson sits in the $50k–$63k base range; Phoenix is higher for police and broadly similar ranges exist for fire depending on assignment. Facilities and skilled-trade roles commonly sit in the high-teens to mid-$30s per hour bands.
So part time board members tend to make the same, if not more, than the people we rely on daily to protect and serve our community.
Make that make sense.
Quick tables to recap
Elected officials (2025)
| Role | Tucson | Phoenix |
|---|---|---|
| Mayor | ~$96–97k (linked to 1.25× supervisor) | $103,840 |
| Councilmember | $96,600 (linked to supervisor) | $77,000 |
| Sources: Prop 413; Prop 489; A.R.S. §11-419. |
Top administrators (latest reported)
| Role | Pima County | Maricopa County |
|---|---|---|
| County chief administrator | $330,000 (Lesher) | $290,000 (Pokorski) |
| Sources: KGUN9; KJZZ contract story & county pages. |
| Role | Tucson | Phoenix |
|---|---|---|
| City Manager (contract/comp) | $300,000 base (Ortega, 2022); Thomure appointed 2024 | ~$415k–$432k recent figures (Zuercher contract / Barton 2024 comp) |
| Sources: Tucson Sentinel; Phoenix New Times; ABC15. |
Frontline
| Role | Tucson | Phoenix |
|---|---|---|
| Police (starting) | $61,235–$63,290 | $70,138–$74,360 (recruit → post-academy) |
| Firefighter (recruit → post-academy) | $20.43/hr → $49,984/yr | $32,635–$50,627 (range report) |
| Facilities Maintenance Specialist | $19.97–$34.44/hr | (Comparable ranges vary by class; Phoenix posts broad ranges in HR PDFs) |
| Sources: Tucson HR & recruiting; Phoenix HR salary range report. |
What the numbers say, without the spin
- Elected pay parity without scale parity
Tucson now pays its mayor just shy of Phoenix’s and pays its councilmembers more than Phoenix’s, even though Phoenix governs a much larger city. That’s a values choice Tucson voters made narrowly, supposedly, via Prop 413, but it’s still not scale-proportional. - County executive premium in the smaller county
Pima County’s top unelected executive is paid more than Maricopa’s. If pay tracked population and budget strictly, you’d expect the opposite. It doesn’t. - Frontline roles remain “overtime-dependent”
TPD and TFD base pay starts comparatively modest; the compensation story improves with overtime, shift differentials, specialty pays (paramedic, HAZMAT, etc.). Phoenix police base is stronger than Tucson’s, but both cities rely on differentials and steps to keep these jobs competitive. - Facilities/maintenance = essential, but mid-band
The crews who keep water quality within spec, HVAC and electrical systems safe, and public buildings code-compliant slot in the $20s–$30s/hr ranges—even as executive layers clear $300k–$430k.
A simple “per-resident” lens (why this rubs people wrong)
If you (crudely) divide mayoral salary by city population, Tucson taxpayers now pay more per resident for the mayor’s office than Phoenix residents do, because the salaries are similar while the populations are not. That doesn’t prove one city is wrong and the other right, but it explains the public instinct that something’s out of balance, especially when risk-bearing roles lag behind. (Use your local population figures to compute per-capita if you want a graphic.)
Where do we go from here?
- Make executive raises contingent on frontline benchmarks. If firefighters, medics, cops, and critical trades aren’t at defined market percentiles, executive raises pause.
- Tie city council adjustments to sworn and skilled-trade median steps. If those medians fall behind peer cities, elected pay doesn’t move.
- Publish pay-vs-scale ratios. Track “administrator salary per $1B of budget” and “per 100k population,” so raises are argued on performance and scale, not just tradition.
When the clipboard holders out-earn the hose, stretcher, and wrench holders by a factor of 4–8×, we’re not rewarding service—we’re rewarding the distance from risk.
It’s the ego up top thinking they deserve more than the real people keeping the world spinning.
If all the officials took a month off, do you think the majority of their areas would notice? Of course not.
If all the frontline personnel took a month off, how soon would the majority of the areas notice? Within a couple days there would be an uproar.
Conclusion
Asking the civil servants to make their pay reflect their actual work and boost the real workers pay is like asking Congress to give themselves term limits.
There is just too much ego up top to ever allow that to happen as it constantly is bred and preached as the “white collar” jobs are more essential than “blue collar” workers, which is just not true and it will probably take a universal job-strike of the blue collar workers to show that.
Want to look at more numbers, see for yourself
https://govsalaries.com/salaries/AZ/city-of-tucson
https://govsalaries.com/salaries/AZ/city-of-phoenix
https://govsalaries.com/salaries/AZ/pima-county