After taking the global economy hostage to secure painful cuts to aid programs and other federal spending, House Republicans are proposing a pay raise for themselves and other members of Congress for the coming fiscal year.
Roll Callreported Thursday that under spending legislation approved by the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee last month, members of Congress “would stand to receive a 4.6%, or $8,000, pay increase” in 2024. Most members of Congress currently make an annual salary of $174,000, putting them in the top 10% of U.S. earners.
“Lawmakers last received a cost-of-living increase in 2009,” the outlet noted, “but House Republicans left out the traditional language blocking a cost-of-living increase for members from this year’s Legislative Branch bill.”
Pulling themselves up by our bootstraps.
I just checked, and apparently I make a bit more than the average congressional representative, when adjusted for cost of living (I make less on paper, so my salary is somewhat comparable). I’m able to save almost half of my income while having three kids and only one income. Granted, my housing probably costs a lot less because I bought before our local housing market exploded (our house is ~$500k as well), but that difference isn’t a big part how much I save.
I do it by being relatively frugal. I drive older, reliable cars, I buy mid-tier clothes and groceries, I don’t frequently eat out, etc. Essentially, I live like someone that makes about what the average household does, with the exception of owning instead of renting.
That’s more-or-less what I expect from a Congressional representative. They should have enough that they don’t need to worry about money, but not so much that they take the job because of the income.
Having their compensation tied to median compensation is more about optics than anything else. I think they should make more than the median to reduce the attractiveness of corruption, but as you rightly said, few representatives are in that position. So I’m thinking representatives should make something like 2x the median household income adjusted for cost of living, which sort of reads like we’re paying the representative’s spouse (if any) to not have to work so they can help the representative do their job (i e. arrange for meals, care of children, etc). Salaries would also not need to be adjusted, they would merely track national median income, so we’d eliminate a lot of the noise around salary adjustments.
So I see two benefits:
They currently make just under two times median income (93k in the DMV, median national would be way too low at 70k), but the financial demands on the job are too high. They don’t really have the luxury of driving old cars and wearing old clothes like you and me. Nor, frankly, do I think we should ask that of them. The job should be an honor and be paid as such. I do like the idea of tying it to median income if only for the incentive to keep a strong middle class though, haha. I’d probably peg it at 3x though. That’s still way less than any K Street lobbyist or mid tier lawyer, and we have to remember that if we want the best and brightest we’re competing against people who go make that at their entry level job at McKinsey, not someone who is trying to become a politician because they want to make money.
My main goal here is to highlight that they are first and foremost public servants. Maybe that means representatives should be paid by their states, or maybe it means their income should be directly tied to median income as I suggested. But my main priority is to remind Congressional representatives that they represent their constituents, not their ideological or selfish priorities.
It should be high enough that they’re comfortable and can focus on serving their constituents, but not so high that they feel even more entitled to special treatment.
Perhaps as a middle ground we can have:
That way the income would only be used for personal needs. I think the current setup is pretty similar to that, so the main change would be how their income keeps up with inflation.