Lawmakers contemplate a tough political sell: Raising their pay

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is calling for a cost-of-living adjustment to lawmaker salaries, which have remained stagnant for a decade — but it's likely to be a tough sell. In remarks before the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress this week, Hoyer said that "it is time to address the issue of member and staff pay and benefits."

Lawmakers contemplate a tough political sell: Raising their pay

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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is calling for a cost-of-living adjustment to lawmaker salaries, which have remained stagnant for a decade — but it's likely to be a tough sell.

In remarks before the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress this week, Hoyer said that "it is time to address the issue of member and staff pay and benefits." "Americans ought to have our nation’s diversity of economic backgrounds better reflected in this House," he added. The House voted to create the select committee at the start of the new Congress in January to come up with recommendations for modernizing the legislative branch by the end of the year. The panel has been specifically tasked with developing recommendations on a variety of issues, including the congressional schedule, procedures, technology, and staff retention and compensation. Members of Congress have had their salaries frozen for a decade, after last receiving a pay adjustment in January 2009. Hoyer has called for a lawmaker pay raise in the past to keep up with the cost of living, arguing that it would help ensure that people who aren’t wealthy can serve in Congress. "The cost of rent, child care and other necessities has risen substantially in Washington and across the country in recent years, but members and staff pay and benefits have not kept pace with the private sector," Hoyer said this week. "If we want to attract a more diverse group of Americans to run for office and work on Capitol Hill, we need to make it possible for them to do so."

Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), chairman of the select committee, told The Hill that a number of colleagues have privately asked if the committee will review member pay. "I've had a couple of members offline also raise the issue and say, 'Hey, are you guys going to take a look at that?'" Kilmer said. Rank-and-file members of Congress earn $174,000 annually, while members of leadership earn more. The Speaker earns the most at $223,500, while the majority and minority leaders in both chambers and the Senate president pro tempore earn $193,400. The Congressional Research Service calculated that if members of Congress had received annual cost-of-living adjustments, the 2018 salary level would have been $208,000.

Even though their salaries haven’t gone up for a decade, lawmakers acknowledge it’s hard to argue for a pay raise when average Americans make far less. The Census Bureau reported last year that the median American household income was $61,372 in 2017.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/434159-lawmakers-contemplate-a-tough-political-sell-raising-their-pay