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.”
They should give up their avocado toast.
And turn off cable and all the streaming services. And don’t forget about those smart phones! My grandpappy’s congresscritters didn’t have no smart phones, these people can get by w/o 'em!
Hey Buddy, most of us don’t have wealth, either.
The equivalent of $83/hr if they worked 40 hrs a week for 52 weeks. I think their pay is fine just where it is.
Clearly he just needs to buy less avacado toast and get a third job.
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You are severely undercutting that hourly pay. They work the equivalent of a part time job that asks you for help 6-8 times a year and will buy you pizza and beer for showing up, kinda like helping a buddy move.
Not only that, but they have an immense amount of support staff that actually works so they don’t have to.
To get paid the average HOUSEHOLD income +130% to do this is fucking plenty. Boooooooooooo fucking hoo. Until they do something meaningful while in office, they can suck a thousand bags of bagged up dicks that are in bags. They’re not even allowed to suck the actual dicks.
But its not the rank and file that get to do the real work, so lets ask what is the salary of non rank and file, and how many of each are there? What percent the whole pie does the rank and file make up, and what does the single top salary earn?
Maybe there can be dorm rooms for congress
Can’t afford two houses on that salary. Boo hoo!
Members of congress, rise up against your oligarchical oppressors!
Form a union!
I make less than 1/3rd of that a year
It turns out, in capitalism, doing anything besides surviving is expensive.
If you’ve seen the Healthcare system in the US, surviving is possibly the most expensive thing you can do.
Speaking of which, Congress critters get a free, extremely good, healthcare plan for life.
They need to stop whining and work harder on pulling themselves up by the bootstraps.
Hmmm, not so fun when that bullshit refrain is thrown back in your faces, is it Republican politicians.
It’s literally his argument that all of the legitimate people will move into something else… effectively pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Your attempt at a gotcha was a huge swing and a miss.
Don’t get me wrong, pull yourself up by your bootstraps is a dumb thing to say all on it’s own.
Pay them more, ban lobbying and PACs.
Hold them to the same ethics standards the rest of us are bound to
If it were up to me you’d be much poorer than you are so count your fucking blessings congressman.
while i agree that it’s probably hard since you essentially have to travel and live in two places id have a lot more sympathy if they also didn’t continually push for tax cuts for billionaires while opposing minimum wage increases, or voting against single payer while having government funded healthcare, or voting against the inflation reduction act…
Before we start making obvious jokes, remember the tale of Robert Hanssen selling state secrets to Moscow.
One of the things he complained about was how difficult it was to manage finances on his salary while living in DC. Now I’m by no means suggesting we give members of Congress a raise. They should be able to figure it out with how much they earn. But what about the federal agents and employees who earn far less, and have access to extremely valuable data?
And why is DC so GODDAMNED EXPENSIVE?? The zoning regulations in DC have got to be some of the dumbest in the country. Using a law from 1899 to justify the max height of buildings based of firefighting equipment at the time is pathetic. The law should be scrapped so supply can meet demand in a city that is becoming increasingly unaffordable, even for those making nearly 200k a year.
I’ve always heard that the height restriction is relative to the Capitol dome, so as not to overshadow it. dc is mostly residential and essentially suburban in construction. there’s plenty of space to convert to higher density as is, but no appetite for it.
They can literally print money freely via insider trading, which is why many of them are millionaires. “Don’t have wealth”??? k.
This crying for more taxpayer dollar handouts through one of their pet media rags garners no sympathy from me. Especially when many of them view their role as obstructionists who should prevent government from functioning entirely. It’s pathetic, they should fuck off to the geriatric ward if they don’t think the job pays enough.
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.
2x74,580 is 149,160 174,000 - 149,160 is 24,840 on top of twice the median 2022 census numbers.
Salaries havent changed in 20 years?
Can someone find how how many times their salaries did increase well beyond the rate of inflation?
How many years does the average rank and file member of the rank and file serve in office.
Also we are comparing a single persons salary to a household income, which shoud be taken into acount. How many households earning that 74,580 are doing it with a single income earner? If even half of those are not single individuals then compared to the average household income, the rank and file members of congress and the senate are effectively earning the equivalent of double their salary, or should be compared to other individuals earning less than $37,281 or approximately 17.92 per hour
Like most the problems in America, it’s all about housing.
17.92 per hour is still higher than they are willing to let the minimum wage go
