Hizzoner cooked up something nice for his entire staff.

Mayor de Blasio doled out raises to 358 of 360 staffers in fiscal year 2016. That came to a total of $2 million, which included a generous $13,000 raise to the executive chef at Gracie Mansion, who now earns $115,000.

Data compiled by the Empire Center also show 56 City Hall staffers — including 35 who got new job titles — received raises of more than 20%.

“(De Blasio) should be spreading the wealth. There are so many families living check to check, and you’re giving employees that already make a nice chunk of change a raise,” said Shaun Williams, 30, a messenger from East New York, Brooklyn.

“You’re supposed to be looking out for us!”

Executive chef Feliberto Estevez’s sweet raise reflected his new duties overseeing big events at Gracie Mansion and elsewhere, City Hall spokesman Freddi Goldstein said.

“His new responsibilities included expanding partnerships with community restaurants and operational and logistics management of all catered events,” Goldstein said.

In 2011, the Daily News highlighted the expense to taxpayers of then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s three executive chefs, which cost $245,000 total that year. At that time, Estevez, who could not be reached, earned $97,000.

The raises for City Hall staff overall mirrored raises built into the contract with District Council 37 — a longstanding practice predating the de Blasio administration, Goldstein maintained.

The most common raise for de Blasio employees was 2.5%, the hike given to DC 37 workers in 2015 in their new contract.

“In order to retain skilled staff, we need to offer competitive wages and promote our employees when possible, which of course also results in a raise,” Goldstein said.

Keeping staff has not been easy for de Blasio. Most recently, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said he will step down to pursue a more lucrative job in the private sector.

And in June, it emerged that Environmental Protection Commissioner Emily Lloyd, Office of Sustainability Director Nilda Mesa and de Blasio’s top lawyer Maya Wiley were all quitting.

De Blasio has said such turnover is normal.

The across-the-board raises come as de Blasio’s approval ratings continue to languish. Only about four in 10 city voters approved of the job he was doing in a Quinnipiac University poll released last week.

He’s also facing multiple investigations into his fund-raising. The upper ranks of the NYPD were also rocked this summer by a bribery scandal.

“What’s so outstanding about what they’re doing? We need some hard evidence and proof to what they’re delivering to us that’s worth $2 million,” said Clarissa Andino, 20, from Pelham Parkway, the Bronx.

Empire Center spokesman Ken Girardin said the nonprofit doesn’t take a position on the raises. “We reserve judgment for the taxpayers,” he said.

© 2016 New York Daily News

You may also like

Pensions New York taxpayers can’t afford

Another day, another shocking Empire Center revelation. Announcing the latest update to its SeeThroughNY database of New York public employee pensions, the watchdog flagged the city government retirees now scoring the highest pensions. Read More

Fiscal Watchdog Wins Open Records Case

The Empire Center for Public Policy on Monday notched a victory in state court Monday after a judge found the names of retired New York City police officers who receive pensions are public records that must be released. Read More

New York City Hopes to Ease Strain on Its Emergency Rooms

Another hurdle is whether the new program can live up to the idea of universal health care, said Bill Hammond, a health-care analyst at the Empire Center, a conservative-leaning New York think tank. New Yorkers already had universal access, he said; the problem is how it is used. Health officials are rightly “trying to fix the delivery system,” said Mr. Hammond; meanwhile, the mayor, “made it sound like they’re fixing the coverage system.” Read More

EDITORIAL: Is de Blasio running for prez — or just running away from home?

The Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon reported this week that the DOE’s schools now spend $25,199 per student, easily the highest among the nation’s 100 largest systems and more than twice the national average. This, when more than half the city’s kids don’t make the grade in math or reading. Read More

Cuomo, Legislature weighing tax on Manhattan pieds-à-terre

“The premise of the pied-à-terre tax — get money from wealthy nonresidents — sounds reasonable on the surface,” said E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy think tank. “The main problem with the idea is the assumption that an entirely new tax is needed in what’s already the nation’s most heavily taxed and wealthy big city, in order to fund the capital plan of a transit system that has yet to demonstrate it can effectively spend the money it already has.” Read More

EDITORIAL: We’re paying a price for the de Blasio-Cuomo spending binge

According to the highly regarded Empire Center for Public Policy, the Cuomo administration, over its first eight years, wasted more than $10 billion in public funding and tax breaks on these types of economic development boondoggles. Read More

Why it costs so much to build anything in New York City

This winter, New York has had two major construction scandals. In March, Related, the giant real estate firm building out much of the Hudson Yards office and apartment site on Manhattan’s West Side, sued construction unions, alleging that they inflated costs by more than $100 million, including fooling Related into paying up to $70 an hour for someone who fetches coffee. Read More

School staff salaries rise $555M as controversial teacher gets $363G in pay

New city payroll data the Empire Center for Public Policy compiled shows the city’s total pay to school workers increased to $10.73 billion for the 2016-17 school year. That’s up from $10.18 billion the year before. Read More