Retiring House Republican says $174,000 isn't enough money for members of Congress: 'Most of us don't have wealth'
Retiring House Republican says $174,000 isn't enough money for members of Congress: 'Most of us don't have wealth'
He's not alone: AOC and others have argued lawmakers should be paid more in order to protect against corruption and make the job more accessible.
Rank-and-file members of both the House and Senate are paid $174,000 a year.
That probably seems like a decent amount of money, and it is: The median household income in 2022 was $74,580, according to the US Census.
But consider that members of Congress generally have to maintain two residences — one in Washington, DC, and one in their home state — and that they haven't gotten a raise since 2009.
Inflation, meanwhile, has eaten away at the value of that salary over time: If lawmakers' salaries had kept pace with inflation, they would be paid over $250,000 today.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican who served as the interim speaker of the House following Kevin McCarthy's ouster, told The Dispatch that congressional pay needed to be raised in order to attract "credible people to run for office."
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If inflation has eaten away at your 6 figure salary that hasn’t been updated since 2009 imagine how the plebs making $7.25/hr feel.
They should make the salary a multiple of the federal minimum wage.
Fuck that, make it directly proportional to what the average american is able to put in their savings account. You do not get to be paid by me to profit if I am not also doing so.
Why the fuck are we all sitting here sympathizing with these fucking animals we have in Congress right now? They have not done anything to help you since they've been in office. If you're going to give us breadcrumbs, you also get bread crumbs. I'm shocked at the way people are thinking about this.
No, I think there's a point to be made here
100k isn't a lot in DC, and they're going to be traveling back and forth a lot. It's a high salary, but it's middle class level when you add in the second rent and the expenses related to the job
Do you want your politicians to be worried about their financial situation? Or already be wealthy? That seems like a recipe for the kind of legalized bribery we have going on
It also means that power is the only draw for people to that position.
There's not a lot of security there, what do you do if you lose? You've now got two rents, maybe even two mortgages and a family, and the only job that is going to pay on that scale with those qualifications is something I don't want to exist, like being a lobbyist or working for a PAC
Until laws are passed that limit stock trades/lobbying payments, I have no sympathy for their money.
To be clear, most all of them can go fuck themselves. I don't really care about any of their financial states, and I absolutely support limiting their ability to make money off the office... It's also a few million dollars a year we're talking about, it's a very cheap way to make things better
What I care about are incentives and selection pressures. I want normal people with morals and idealistic people in those seats. I don't want rich people raised to crave approval from their peers, or people with dreams of climbing higher.
I want the job to be the end goal, not a stepping stone to another end
They have to have two houses, one in Washington, and one in their home district. Washington is an extremely high cost of living area. This is a time when $175k really doesn't go as far as it sounds.
But yes, raise the minimum wage, too, because $7.25/hour doesn't go far anywhere under any circumstances.