Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren does not believe members of Congress and their staffers are paid enough and wants additional funds to flow to federal workers.
The salary of a member of Congress is $174,000 and has been so since 2009. Warren believes that this is not enough despite her salary being four times larger than the median U.S. workers’ salary, which is around $40,000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
‘Everyone working in government should be paid more: members of Congress and their staffs,’ the Massachusetts Democrat told Business Insider.
‘Congress should not be the plaything of multimillionaires and billionaires who’ve already secured their fortunes and don’t care about earning a living to support their families,’ she said.
Warren believes that a pay increase for members of Congress and their staffs would help the government attract and retain more qualified employees.
Warren believes paying members of Congress more would help them with costs unique to the job, like paying to maintain residences in D.C. and their homes states
The Massachusetts senator thinks a raise will attract more qualified workers to jobs in public service
At the end of 2022, the House passed a rule allowing members to be reimbursed for the cost of lodging, food and travel while on official business in DC. The reimbursement could increase members’ pay by up to $34,000.
‘I understand that no one wants to waste taxpayer dollars, but Congress needs to be more realistic about what it takes to attract the top people to public service across the board, and how to keep them engaged throughout their careers,’ Warren said.
Despite her push for more pay, financial disclosures filed by Warren show that she made over $443,000 in book sales in 2022, more than twice that of her senate salary, Business Insider reported.
Republican lawmaker Patrick McHenry similarly suggested in an interview with The Dispatch that the compensation for members of Congress should be increased in order to draw ‘credible people to run for office.’
‘Most of us live on the salary. 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,’ he added.
Sen. J.D. Vance would rather increase member of Congress’ staff budgets to provide more money for employees rather than bumping members’ salaries
The Republican from Ohio strongly agrees that paying congressional staffers more will help keep public servants from fleeing to the higher paying jobs offered by the private sector
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who McHenry may have been referencing, raised the maximum annual rate of pay for staff to $212,100 in 2022. That was the third time the 83-year-old San Francisco representative increased staff pay.
Other Republicans, meanwhile, oppose increasing the salary of members of Congress.
‘My view is that we should have substantially larger budgets,’ Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance told Business Insider. Increasing members’ budget could give them the ability to pay staff appropriately since senior staff are ‘almost always gonna get poached by a lobbying firm because we can’t possibly compete with their salary.’
Republican Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona told Business Insider he wished members were paid based on their work, adding that ‘right now we would pretty much be paid zero.’
‘And the reality is, we’re still paid better than most Americans,’ he added.