Mayor de Blasio is furloughing himself just to send a message, which sounds about right

Hundreds of staffers in the mayor’s office — and Mayor Bill de Blasio himself — will be placed on a weeklong, unpaid furlough as the city grapples with a multibillion-dollar budget gap, the mayor announced Wednesday.





All 500 employees of the mayor’s office will be required to take five unpaid days off between Oct. 1 and March, saving about $1 million for the city. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the $9 billion in revenue the city has lost due to the coronavirus crisis, but de Blasio said the move was intended to send a message that the budget pain is being felt at the top.





“This is a step you never want to see for good, hardworking people,” he said. “So it is with pain that I say they and their families will lose a week’s pay, but it’s something we have to do.”





De Blasio plans to work unpaid during his furlough, his office said. Other employees will not be expected to work while on furlough.