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."
Let's just build a big congressional dorm with furnished studio apartments and make them all live there when Congress is in session. It would save the government a fortune in cost of living reimbursements and security costs.
You know genuinely I don't understand why this isn't a thing. It's expensive to have two homes, especially when you aren't even sure you'll have the job for more than four years. It would lower the cost of entry into politics for people who do work minimum wage.
Shoving someone into a land full of surprise expenses seems like a perfect recipe for corruption.
It would lower the cost of entry into politics for people who do work minimum wage.
It sounds like you understand perfectly well. Politics is for rich people to get more power, and get richer by granting favors to their friends. "Public servant" is the lie they tell to make us feel good about it.
Yes, I know that there are the few modest politicians, but it's the exception to the rule.
Congressional barracks or even a neighborhood would actually be a great idea. It could get its own metro line.
Like it’s a job with a lot of time there. I think it’s fair that they be able to comfortably live there with their spouses and other loved ones, but it would be good to keep housing centralized to them. I’m reminded of Air Force neighborhoods where I grew up. Sometimes your aimless walk would get you a conversation with someone holding a machine gun because there are medium security off base residences
Matt Gaetz would organize a panty raid. I guarantee it.
I had toyed with the idea of putting cameras all over the building and charging to view them...
I remember an election or two ago a story about a freshman congressman having to sleep on a cot in his office because he couldn't afford DC rent.
Maybe they should do something about the out of control rent prices lol
Make it a munger dorm.
There would be the added perk of people not wanting to remain congress critters for more than a couple of terms unless they really care about the job
A bunch of them sleep in their office already. Worst kept secret in Washington. Dorms would be an upgrade.
I was also thinking the extremely wealthy wouldn't want to tolerate living without the luxury they are used to.
Squid games dorm
Many members of Congress already sleep in their office (which is technically against building codes). Dorms would be an improvement.
Put them in government housing on welfare with Medicaid.
That's a version of Big Brother I'd definitely watch. At least the first season.
Great idea. And we have so much unused real estate the government owns in DC if they didn't force people to return to the office.
Maybe they should skip their avocado toast or drink less Starbucks?
Something something bootstraps
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.
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.
Tie their pay to a multiplier of the minimum wage.
Also don't pay them if they aren't working. Fuck this whole BS with abstaining vote.
minimum wage, and their wages, and almost everything else they deal with should be indexed to COL or the relevant stat. why we keep using static numbers eludes me.
Id be significantly more open to this if you assholes hadn't spent the last 50 years helping steal money from the poor for billionaires.
@MicroWave @steinbring We should not increase their pay. Instead we should simply provide housing connected with public transit so members of Congress can cut some of their costs and actually experience what it is like to live this way. They already get great healthcare and access to a fitness center and cafeteria.
I understand what you're saying but I think you can't get elected to a national house or senate seat without being wealthy or very connected to wealth.
The income is mostly just a joke. There should be an equitable way for people without an income or wealthy connections to be elected on merit and opinions rather than by virtue of giant funding.
Personally I vote for election advertising bans by 3rd parties and to make all election advertising done through a collective pool of funds shared by all candidates. These fucking PACs are a big problem today and they are everywhere
But the Supreme Court said spending my money to support political causes is freedom of expression protected by the first amendment! How dare you try to limit my expression!
/s just in case.
Yep, excellent idea.
Housing for them is the real issue here.
Most of us don't have wealth
Reality disagrees. While over half of Congress are millionaires, the highest credible number for the US population in general is 12%
In fact, the 100 highest earners in Congress more than doubled (https://ballotpedia.org/Personal_Gain_Index_(U.S._Congress) their personal wealth in a single year, with the top 10 "earners" increasing their wealth on average 422% in a single year!
Hey, everyone: he just said 12% of the United States population are millionaires. More than one out of every 10 people. Think about that.
Guess how net worth looks for the bottom 88%.
Wealth disparity in this country is insane.
Hey, everyone: he just said 12% of the United States population are millionaires. More than one out of every 10 people. Think about that.
First, that's the absolute highest estimate of anyone halfway credible.
Second, that includes real estate holdings. If you own a house anywhere even halfway desirable but don't have a penny to your name otherwise, you're usually still a millionaire.
Guess how net worth looks for the bottom 88%.
Absolutely 3rd world country atrocious. For some of the top 12% too, once you take their house out of the equation and only count the wealth they can spend without becoming homeless.
Wealth disparity in this country is insane.
Definitely. Anyone who says otherwise is either an idiot, part of the problem, or both.
Isn't a fair bit of that graft and/or insider trading?
Yeah. After all, bribes are legal in Washington as long as you don't say out loud what they're for. And insider trading is hardly contained, politicians who have no prior experience with stocks suddenly consistently outperforming the market.
There's even a Nancy Pelosi stock tracker for you to profit (less than her since she doesn't have to announce in real time) on the insider trading of her and her husband!
In Washington, the corruption is not just overlooked, it's written into the rules and demanded by party leaders 🤬
Congressional pay rate should be tied to national minimum wage rate. In order to raise one you have to raise both by the same percentage.
If you can't live on 170k a year, you probably shouldn't be making decisions for those on 30k.
I am completely down with paying Congress a shit ton of money, but we're going to need a zero tolerance policy on bribery and lobbying.
You're not going to get CEO payment and tips.
And zero tolerance - as in NO tolerance whatsoever - on insider trading.
Not ONE of them should be allowed to put anything into the market, except for some kind of automatic payments steadily pushed (NOT timed) into index funds only. And they'll be told that ALL of their contacts and friends and family will be very closely watched. All of their communications can be pulled by the SEC if need be if their is any suspicion of them giving insider information to anyone else. And it's one strike, and you are out. You are removed from office and do prison time if found guilty of this.
The American people are so sick of this stuff. The dishonest right wing talks about the likes of Pelosi, well guess what, she can rot in prison too if she violates these proposed rules. The fact is plenty of Republicans are doing it. But the problem is right now it's legal.
Yeah I mean, they're still going to find some ways to profit off the position but we can at least make a solid attempt to keep them from doing it. Thing is there's a lawmakers there's no way they're going to ever agree to it.
What about just the tips?
Nah that's what the American people get. Repeatably and vigorously every day
Fuck yeah.
It should also be tied to a multiplier on minimum wage or median income in their home state. You want a pay increase, you better be making life better for the majority of your constituents.
you'd* better be
If they're struggling, then maybe they should pick up a second job, maybe cancel some of those subscription services?
The problem is that that are picking up second jobs, in a sense.
We should actually pay them more. We don't want only the rich able to represent us.
We should pay everyone more as well.
I get the sentiment, but having members of Congress beholden to an employer would be pretty bad. There's already a corruption issue with insider trading, speaking fees, the revolving door, etc.
Funny how they cry about not being able to live on almost 200grand a year, yet they expect my grandmother to live on 12k a year from social security.
No they don't, SS isn't intended to be a basic income. We should have a basic income, don't get me wrong, but they're pretty vocal about it being (in theory, if not reality) a supplement to retirement savings.
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.
Get a roommate.
No joke, but many of them do essentially bunk together, especially the ones that aren't horribly corrupt.
Yeah, that's not too surprising. I'm sure rent there is crazy and they need a second home there.
There was a short lived show in the early days of Amazon Prime starring John Goodman with this exact premise. I really enjoyed it.
This isn't as wild as it sounds.
A family friend was elected to Congress, and he had been an HVAC contractor prior to his election, and the move to DC was financially difficult because DC housing is very expensive and they still had a mortgage back in their district.
How did he work things out? He started accepting donations, and that's as slippery slope. He's become as corrupt as they come and I'm ashamed to have been his friend.
Now if only states maintained congressional residences in DC so their congressmen don't find themselves saddled with +million-dollar mortgages on homes they might only be living in for 2 or 4 years.
Really, if you're sitting on a million-dollar mortgage and you might be primaried in your next election if you don't play ball with the lobbyists (or more to the point, you'd have to keep paying it after your tenure in congress ends) isn't that just bending freshman congressmen over a barrel to be corrupted?
Conversely, imagine the scenario if you lose your re-election bid and in order to pursue the post-congress lobbying career you'd have to buy yourself a new home in DC.
Normalize getting the fuck out of DC when you're out of office, guys/make it expensive to stay on
This is an extremely high quality take! We have governors mansions in some (all?) States, the president gets the white house, but what do elected officials at the national level get?
Exactly. Paying them $10 milion a year would be a drop in the bucket to the us gov (about 0.1% of the budget).
And if it made them immune to lobbying and work for the people properly, it would be money well spent.
Unfortunately, I am not convinced raising their salary would help that much.
Hey Buddy, most of us don't have wealth, either.
I'd be happy to have tax funded basic housing for them in DC.
Me too. Prison, right?
Yes, their housing in DC should be identical to the minimum standards that they prescribe for prisoners.
Drain the Swamp!?
To be fair, they need a house in their hometown and a house in DC. That can be extremely expensive. You want congressmen to be financially independent so that they don't need to accept bribes and such.
They'd still accept bribes if they were paid 5 million a day.
Its not about the money.
its about the position, and power.
If we only had a group of people who could pass laws to make housing affordable, gosh
You got them there
DC is expensive as golden shit.
Many represenitives live in their office.
But they take them anyway.
Some do. But if you pay them almost nothing, they all will because they will have to.
Not when they retire from their job.
are you fucking kidding me. if my salary had kept up with inflation, id be making 250k. if average people dont get that benefit, why the fuck should they.
on top of that, they have rules specifically allowing them to game the stock market with their insider knowledge.
if you cant make money being a congresscritter, youre just not trying.
'Most of us don't have wealth'
Welcome to the fucking club.
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...
I was with you until the last six words. That wasn't going to do anything but further devalue the dollar. Which is going to get much worse I think.
Current trend is the US Dollar is strengthening. It's already basically at parity with the Euro where by memory the euro was something like 1.3 USD just a few years ago
Honestly that’s more fucking money than they deserve. They spend more time bickering than working it seems.
100%
I have some bootstraps they can borrow.
That's equivalent to 24,000 hours at the federal minimum wage.
There are only 8,760 hours in a year.
Damn, that's almost 12 years at 40 hours per week.
It should be tied to federal minimum wage. You want a raise? The rest of us get one, too.
As others have said, tie it to minimum wage increases.
Also... I would trade paying them ten times as much for a prohibition on them owning or trading in the stock market in a heart beat. It's inherently a conflict of interest that puts them at odds with the majority of their constituents.
Then. What. The. Fuck. Do. You. Think. Life. Is. Like. For. Your. Constituents.
These idiots are literally building their own gallows to be strung up on. Mind boggling lack of foresight.
No, no, no. Calm down everyone. No one has ever died from revolutions triggered by oppressed populations...
Seriously guys when do we start burning shit.
I ask myself this question every day. I'm starting to think that once enough people just independently start burning, it'll eventually spread to the rest of the population like wildfire (pun absolutely intended)
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.
This is why only rich people that don't give a shit about normal people end up in Congress. Regular people can't afford to be in Congress.
🎻
Too large
If they're whining about making over twice the median income, they should consider making moves to lower the cost of living for everyone else. If it's not good enough for them, why should the rest of us suffer?
Or maybe they start living within their means. Isn't that what they tell everyone else - they tell people they are eating too much avocado toast, paying for Netflix, have smartphones and a large screen TV....and they are telling people that they cannot live on 174K.
They don't have wealth? Guess what? Most of us don't. And a lot of us work a metric ton more hours than these clowns do.
Don't forget to give up that coffee.
Maybe there can be dorm rooms for congress
Pay them more, ban lobbying and PACs.
Hold them to the same ethics standards the rest of us are bound to
$174k is literally 2.41x what I make. Fuck off congress.
Yeah but they have to pay for coke, hookers and abortions. Their argument takes that into account.
And now you've broadcast to the world that you make $72k. Congrats
My top pay as a professional with a doctorate and 8 years experience was $72k. Not wealthy, but substantially better than the vast majority of Americans.
Oh shucks a government job that doesn't pay very well.
TFW
Learn to code.
While I do agree that’s really not enough anymore, given engineering (for example) salary in high cost of living areas and I’d support an increase …
- it’s up to Congress to give their successors a raise
- given the Clarence Thomas issue, we can see that no amount of pay will be enough for some of them, given lack of ethics standards
- we keep seeing articles about politicians being wealthy and minimal conflict of interest standards, so let’s see the evidence that salary is a meaningful part of their pay
Maybe I’m just frustrated having to go through annual ethics training for my company. Why am I, as an individual contributor, held to so much higher an ethics standard than people who make decisions for the future of our entire country? Why do I need to watch out go for insider trading when I don’t have insider information, compared to people with the access of Congress? Why is my standard for conflict of interest so much higher than someone who can actually take advantage? Heck, why am I held to so much higher a standard on discrimination and harassment, than people with so much power over their victims?
I'm disgusted with ethics training. I have to take this constantly, and I have no opportunity to take anything from anyone. Somebody offered me free soup from the Soup Nazi's company once and I couldn't take it.
Meanwhile, these pigs in Congress are lining their pockets with everything.
Maybe they should have thought of that at some point in the last 44 years instead of destroying the socioeconomic mobility of the lower- and middle-class in the country. Now the leopard is eating their face, too, and it’s extremely appropriate.
How much are they making on the stock market?
If only they understood the irony
Sir, please get fucked and die. Thank you.
Inflation hits everyone hard
It's almost like being a public servant isn't intended to make you wealthy. $174k per Congressperson is more than double the average household income, so they can make it work.
Maybe they should be forced to sell their original house when they have to move to DC. It seems like the fact that they end up having to have 2 houses and all the expenses that go with it is the crux of the problem. Especially when DC is probably more than twice as expensive.
Either that or you provide low cost row houses in DC for congresspeople that need accommodation in both places, so they can keep their original housing and not have to worry about paying for a house in DC Sort of like a hotel solely for congresspeople. Then you just require every congressperson to use the rowhousing unless their home city is already DC.
They have to retain their primary residence in their home district, otherwise they'd be ineligible for their position. Putting them in some cheap gov housing while they're in DC would be a good solution though.
Neither do we.
"Most of us don't have wealth"
Uh. Pretty sure that's not true.
I've heard we can't pay teachers anymore because it's already unfair they're getting paid when they don't work during the summers
These guys get paid more and work less. So sorry. Can't do it.
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
You're more than welcome to suck on Deez nuts and see what you can get
Isn't Washington D.C. also one of the more expensive cities to live in?
So, yeah, residence at home, residence in D.C. Tough to swing on 174K.
What they should do is make everyone remote. Secure video connections from their homes.
This meeting of the 119th Congress is brought to you by SurfShark.
It's too dangerous to use outside software. They would need to hire a team to develop an in-house video solution... and it crashed again.
Looking forward to people zoom bombing congress.
Oh the poor old things. Imagine not getting a raise since 2009!! All the minimum wage workers can imagine just that, because minimum wage hasn't been raised since 2009, either. And a full time minimum wage job is going to provide a helluva less income than $174K.
I'm so tired of these privileged blowhards griping and complaining about how hard they have it while actively refusing to actually improve the lives of their constituents.
We should raise their salaries anyway to a point where it becomes hard to entice them with any more wealth.
We should actually lower their wages so we actually get people in those positions who want to do the job simply to make the country better. We need politicians who don't care about personal wealth at all, but I realize that's wishful thinking.
The kind of people that make the best leaders normally don't want to lead, sadly.
Then go work for private sector.
He wants to be a welfare queen.
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.
That salary means something different to a congressman from the Bay area or NYC, vs. a congressman from Boise or Iowa. Im down for pay raises generally.
Can't afford two houses on that salary. Boo hoo!
Never trust anyone over the age of five wearing a bow tie.
But The Doctor wore one!
you have to also wear a fez... and also care about humanity.
True but this isn’t Gallifrey and the doctor isn’t a shit bag republican.
The man who voted AGAINST raising YOUR wage is now complaining HIS wage ISN'T enough!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
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."
"And then, you know, the very wealthy few end up dominating the news because of their personal stock trades when most of us don't have wealth."
McHenry, a more mild-mannered House Republican than most, recently announced he would retire from Congress at the end of his term.
As of now, many members of Congress are, in fact, independently wealthy, and many generate significant income from stock trading.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has long pushed for a pay raise for members of Congress, arguing that it's a safeguard against corruption and makes lawmakers less likely to seek income through stock trading.
The original article contains 340 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 48%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Public servant wanting to get rich. Funny times.
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.
What if we just pay them +10% on the existing bribe structure and convert to federally funded elections?
If lawmakers' salaries had kept pace with inflation, they would be paid over $250,000 today.
You mean kinda like how inflation has fucked everyone else in the country too? Kinda seems like the guys in charge of this shitshow should be the LAST motherfuckers getting a raise.
lol. Complaining about inflation and lack of raises for THEMSELVES before the American people.
Members of congress, rise up against your oligarchical oppressors!
Form a union!
I make less than 1/3rd of that a year
If it were up to me you'd be much poorer than you are so count your fucking blessings congressman.
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.
I'm sorry, what is federal minimum wage again? When was it last raised? Where is the federal budget? Oh we STILL don't have one. Got it.
I'm sure they get plenty of allowances that make it easier to maintain two residences and handle all kinds of other expenses.
I don't understand!! The federal government was never supposed to be a retirement. It was about civic duty. That's the problem everyone wants to retire off the taxpayers. They don't follow the constitution anymore. I challenge you to actually read the constitution. They will say it how you interpret it but it's a simple document. The men that wrote it did it that way on porpoise. They could have wrote a lot more words to it but they didn't because they knew lawyer could twist the word for interpretation. Read the part were the lawyers say they can tax the individual income at the federal level. It only says they can tax the STATE for the different income levels in it. They use to just go off of population and tax the STATE per head count. No where in it does it say they can tax the individual directly.
The STATES use to collect the taxes and they State government would pay the federal government. Well the states kept taxing at the same rate not giving any money to the federal government. So now the people are double taxed.
Look up where to head supreme court Justice at the time said the 16th amendment gave the federal government no more power than it already had. Well before that they could not tax the individual directly and they don't really have the power now they just do.
Before you say I'm crazy look at the constitution yourself and tell me how you think it reads. That is the 16th amendment. While your at it look up the army clause where it says the federal government can only leave a standing army for 2 years only in war time. If not in war time its supposed to be dissolved and turned back to the stated.
The states
