What We Pay Our Incoming Legislators

We have just completed a contentious election and while the lion’s share of the attention has been on the Presidency, I think what we really need to take a look at are the people who actually control the power of the purse. 

The average salary of a member of the United States Congress is $174,000.  That puts them in the top 5% of income earners in the United States.

Ninety-five per cent of you earn less than that, but no matter what your income, if you are a full time employee, you put in about 47 hours per week.  Unless you are a member of Congress.   

Congress has put in a full week of work exactly 14% of the time in the last 36 years.  Since 1978, our legislators have worked two full weeks out of every 5 months!  If you piece meal their work day by day it amounts to less than half of the week days available.  This means they are being paid $608 per day, give or take.  I ask you, are you getting your money’s worth? 

But let’s not stop there.  Maintaining a typical Senatorial office costs the tax payer $2.5 million per office.  Again, the bigger the state and more prestigious the office the greater the cost, but you get the drift.  The Senate also spends $370,000/year to maintain its own hair salon.  The senatorial stylists are paid $70,000 year in contrast to the average D.C. stylist at $27,000.  No wonder they all have good hair!  The question is no longer, “Are you getting your money’s worth?”  It is now, “Do you feel like a sucker?”  To which the only appropriate answers are, “No.” and, “Yes.” 

On the House of Representatives side each member gets an allowance of not quite $1 million to hire up to 18 personal aides.  The salary of the aides is capped at $168,000, which means they earn almost as much as the legislator.  If Congressmen need all of these people and all of this money it must be because lots of good things are being done, right?

Our legislators, by the way, think they are underpaid.

Every two years we get to elect, in my opinion, the most important people in the country.  Not the President, of course.  I am old school.   Remember, the President can not present a single bill or spend a single cent of taxpayer money.  All of that authority belongs to the Congress—only the Congress. 

Every two years we will elect every member of the House of Representatives and approximately a third (35 members) of the Senate.  There are lots of reasons to vote for each of these people.  There are even some reasons to vote against some of them.  But any employee (which is what they are) who demands top dollar but shows up to work less than half the time needs to pass a pretty stiff sniff test to earn my vote.  Ask yourself two questions.  (1) What legislation has this person sponsored?  (2)  What legislation have they helped pass?  Don’t bother asking what they have said—they can spin anything—except a red or green vote.  You have 40 days to get all the information you need to make an intelligent decision.  If you don’t like what you see happening in the next two years, vote the rascals out and let someone else give this government thing a try.  Hopefully the new person will decide it is a full time job.

Sweep clean and keep the faith.