Congress Deserves a Raise - and So Do Its Staffers

This site allows you to look up congressional staff salaries. To many Americans, these numbers will look pretty impressive - about $150K per year for a typical chief of staff, and many other salaries in the $80K to low hundreds range. But let us remember that leading law firms are starting first year lawyers at amounts in excess of $145,000. Washington is not an inexpensive place to live, and congressional staffers are in important positions and wield considerable power.

Congressmen, meanwhile, earn a bit over $165,000 per year. Again, that is a healthy salary, but not when compared to partners in large law firms, vice presidents in banking and industry, or most Washington lobbyists.

It is not healthy to have a situation in which Congressmen and their staffers are routinely among the lowest, if not the lowest, paid individuals in the room. Corruption flourishes when people with tremendous power and comparatively little money are kept constantly in close proximity to large amounts of money.