Bluffton town council is one of the highest paid in SC, data show. Why?
The Bluffton Town Council has more than doubled the annual salaries of its members over the past two years, according to data from Municipal Association of South Carolina.
As of January 2026, Bluffton’s four town council members each receive $25,000 in yearly compensation, while the mayor receives $35,000, according to MASC.
That’s up 127% percent from 2024, when council members were paid $11,000 and the mayor received $16,500, data shows.
The recent pay boost makes the Bluffton Town Council the third-highest paid city or town council in the state of South Carolina, according to MASC. The ranking does not account for county council pay, which MASC does not track.
By comparison, the City of Charleston pays its council members $25,300 annually, according to MASC. North Myrtle Beach City Council members receive $28,914 per year.
Asked about the pay increase, council members pointed to Bluffton’s recent growth explosion, which they say has increased the workload for public officials.
Bluffton Mayor Larry Toomer said four out of five members of the council work to make a living while balancing public service. Toomer himself owns and operates Bluffton Oyster Company, the last traditional hand-shucking oyster house in South Carolina.
“I work seven days a week, taking calls on different issues that come up,” Toomer said. “It takes a lot of my time, and you know, I’m not retired, I’m still a working guy.”
How council pay has increased
Since 2008, the Bluffton Town Council has increased its pay by nearly 600%, data shows.
S.C. Code 1976, 5-7-170 allows municipal councils to set the annual salaries of their own members by ordinance. However, the law prevents the raises from taking effect until after the next general election.
Bluffton town council elections take place every two years. Council members serve four-year, staggered terms and are sworn in January. Once two or more members of the council are elected or re-elected and sworn in, the pay raise goes into effect for the entire council.
The recent pay raise is the largest the council has received since the earliest year available in MASC data.
The town council voted to give itself a 10% raise in June 2021. Raises went into effect in January 2022, bringing council members’ annual pay up from $10,000 to $11,000 and the mayor’s pay up from $15,000 to $16,500.
Three years later, in June 2024, the council again voted to increase council member pay to $17,000 and the mayor’s pay to $25,000. However, the raise could not take effect that year or the next.
In September 2025, the council again increased its pay again to $25,000 per council member and $35,000 for the mayor. The raise finally took effect in January 2026.
Why Bluffton council pay is increasing
Mayor Pro-Tempore Fred Hamilton, who was first elected to the council in 2005, said he’s never considered how much he gets paid to be “important.”
“Giving back to the community that I’ve been a part of all my life has been my reason for serving, and I’ve done that since 2005 with not even enough money to pay for gas,” Hamilton said.
Bluffton has been one of the fastest growing communities on the East Coast for a long time, he said, so “it’s been a lot of work.” According to U.S. Census data, Bluffton’s population has grown from 12,530 in 2010 to an estimated 36,807 in 2025.
Toomer said the current pay is “not what you call a lot of money.” Before the pay increase, people used to be shocked that he only made $16,500 as mayor, he said.
In June 2021, the council also approved 5% raises for all town employees. Toomer hopes better compensation will open the doors for more people to get involved in public service who might have otherwise not been able to.
“I’ve always been an advocate and believer that if you want good people, they have to be compensated, or they’re going to go somewhere were they can be compensated,” Toomer said.
Other councils’ pay
The Town of Hilton Head Island Town Council pays its members $23,345 per year, with the mayor receiving a base salary of $37,375 per year, according to data provided to the Island Packet via a Freedom of Information Act Request.
Council members for the City of Beaufort and for the Town of Port Royal each receive $12,000 annually, while their mayors receive $15,000 per year, according to the Municipal Association of South Carolina.
Beaufort County Council Members each make $30,063 per year, while the vice chair receives $31,192 and the chair receives $32,293, according to the South Carolina Association of Counties. They are the second-highest paid county council members in the state of South Carolina, surpassed by only the Greenville County Council, which pays its members $33,760, its vice chair $36,260, and its chair $38,760, according to a February 2026 SCAC report.
The highest-paid mayor in the state of South Carolina is Charleston Mayor William Cogswell, who rakes in $236,549 annually, according to MASC. The mayor of Columbia, Daniel J. Rickenmann, ranks second-highest at $75,000 annually.
