It’s not just wages. Mayor Parker and DC 33’s contract talks have ‘several’ sticking points.

It’s not all about the Benjamins.

While wages are the main sticking point in the contract negotiations at the center of the ongoing city workers strike, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 have also been negotiating over several other issues, such as benefits and residency rules for union members.

DC 33 is the lowest-paid among Philadelphia’s four major municipal unions. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, the average DC 33 annual salary of $46,000 is a pay rate more than $2,000 below Philadelphia’s “living wage.” Members’ salaries are a crucial sticking point in negotiations that are likely to make or break a deal.

But the city’s and the union’s original proposals from January and February, respectively, show that the two sides also began negotiations with major differences over issues including healthcare, pensions, work rules, and residency.

DC 33 president Greg Boulware has said the two sides have already reached an agreement on several smaller issues, but it’s unclear what those are. But both sides acknowledge there is still plenty to sort out in addition to wages.

“There’s a number of issues that both sides want to get resolved,” said Carlton Williams, who directs the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives and who attended the most recent negotiating session. “The negotiation process is an exchange, not only about wages and compensation, but a whole variety of issues that we’re working through right now. So, it’s just not about wages, even though that’s the biggest part of it.”

Boulware told reporters last Thursday that he would be coming to the city with a revised proposal over the holiday weekend, and that health and welfare and work rules remained a top issue.

“Wages is paramount. Health and welfare is still paramount,” Boulware said. “There’s additional work rules in place that we need to see provisions on.”

Spokespeople for Parker and Boulware did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

In 1992, James Sutton, DC 33’s president at the time, made some contract concessions that haunt the union’s members to this day. But Sutton came away with one major win in the final deal he signed with then-Mayor Ed Rendell: preserving the union’s control over its health and welfare fund.

Currently, the city contributes to the fund at a rate of $1,500 per employee per month.

The city, in its initial proposal from January, put forth a new, similar structure, in which the city would reimburse “the plan for an agreed upon percentage of claims and related expenses.”

The Parker administration said in its proposal that the new setup would align with its arrangement with AFSCME’s District Council 47, another union for city employees.

DC 33, on the other hand, would like to preserve the status quo in the structure of its health plan. And in its initial contract proposal from February, the union also requested that the city increase its contribution to $1,700 per member per month, starting July 1, 2026.

It’s unclear where the city and union now stand, but just last week it appeared that Boulware had some apprehension.

“We don’t trust you to care for our health and welfare [fund],” Boulware could be heard saying at one point to Chief Deputy Mayor Sinceré Harris late in the night of June 30, shortly before he called the strike. He was likely referencing the change Parker had proposed on how union members’ health benefits would be administered.

Non-uniformed city employees are required to live in Philadelphia, and DC 33 workers have long wanted the option to move out of the city after a certain number of years.

But Parker likely won’t be budging on this issue anytime soon, and even Boulware has acknowledged that Parker sees relaxing the residency requirement as a nonstarter.

In the union’s initial contract proposal, DC 33 asked to eliminate the city’s residency requirement for employees who have worked for more than five years, but since then, the union has shifted to 10 years. The city’s initial proposal does not include any change to residency requirements.

Boulware has argued it is unfair that almost all DC 33 members are required to live in the city because members of the unions for Philadelphia police officers and firefighters have the option of moving elsewhere after five years of service. But those unions won that right over the city’s objections through a special process known as binding interest arbitration, which applies only to public safety unions and cannot be overturned by the administration. (Additionally, the city at the moment is temporarily waiving all residency rules for new hires who become members of AFSCME Local 159, a subset of DC 33 representing Philadelphia correctional officers that negotiates its contracts separately from the rest of the council.)

Parker told reporters at a news conference last week that she has always been a proponent of the residency requirement for municipal workers, even before she became mayor, and sees it as a key way to diversify the city workforce.

“I want our municipal workers to be a part of the city of Philadelphia because they are a part of the fabric of our community,” Parker said July 1.

Instead, Parker has pointed to her signature Housing Opportunities Made Easy initiative, which aims to build or preserve 30,000 housing units, as another avenue for easing the cost burden for DC 33 members living in the city. As part of the H.O.M.E. plan, Parker will borrow $800 million to support various new and existing housing programs that are geared toward assisting working-class families.

While none of these programs are exclusive to DC 33 or other city employees, Parker said last Thursday that the city could set aside money in a program to help lower-income Philadelphians get mortgages. She has also increased the income eligibility for the Basic Systems Repair Program to ensure that middle-class families can access it.

“So, while other people talk, we acted on it,” Parker said on July. ”Residency is a no-go."

Staff writer Beatrice Forman contributed to this article.