Pay them more, ban lobbying and PACs.

$174k is literally 2.41x what I make. Fuck off congress.

Oh shucks a government job that doesn't pay very well.

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?

TFW

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.

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.

How much are they making on the stock market?

Sir, please get fucked and die. Thank you.

Inflation hits everyone hard

If only they understood the irony

"Most of us don't have wealth"

Uh. Pretty sure that's not true.

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.

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

Neither do we.

Then go work for private sector.