- In what world does an annual salary of $174,000 meet the definition of underpaid?
That would be in the nation's capital, where soon-to-be-retired Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., said Americans should know that their members of Congress — as the board of directors for the "largest economic entity in the world" — are underpaid.
$174,000 may well not be enough to make ends meet given that you have to maintain a secondary residence in DC, a very expensive city. Their residence in DC has to be a secondary residence, because they need to be a resident of the state they're representing too. I don't think asking for a housing allowance is unreasonable. We want people who aren't wealthy taking seats in congress.
We want people who aren't wealthy taking seats in congress.
-Absolutely, very good point. I can't imagine that in this day and age Mr. Smith, from the movie Mr. Smith goes to Washington, could afford to ever go. It really is a very expensive city, plus the travel between the two would be expensive as well. I wonder how much of that they can expense? To they get travel vouchers? How much of their lives is comped? Are they allowed comps or doesn't violate some ethics laws?
#whatdoyouthink -- I like that tag a lot. I think that given the amount of work congressmen do and the amount of stress they're under, $174000 is probably not a salary commensurate to their effort. I think that it's easy to take pot shots at people who will come out and say that. I think that the people taking the pot shots tend to have comparatively easy jobs. On the flip side, not too many people actually make the money they deserve, and to be honest, you can't really put a price on stress. Jobs stressful to that degree take years off of your life -- no salary would convince me to take one. Moran's not "tone deaf" -- that's the opinion of a stupid person writing on the internet^ (compensation? hopefully $0). He's not even wrong. But that doesn't change the fact that if I were to take a look at raising the salaries of underpaid jobs, congressional representatives would not make my list. Becoming congressman is 100 percent choice, unlike the vast majority of jobs. And as far as the economic argument to which NPR pays slight homage, the same one we see cropping up in CEO pay debates -- in almost every case it would take a hell of a lot of money to attract people to congress who are smart enough to be there but are focused solely on profit. Not entirely sure we want those people anyway. Different question. ^Don't say it.