House Leadership Calls for Increase in Staff Pay

House leaders are calling for a 20 percent increase in funding for Members’ Representational Allowances (MRAs), committees, and leadership offices to increase staff pay. On April 28, 2021, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sent a letter to appropriators making the case for the requested increase.

The House’s professional workforce has “effectively seen a reduction in pay during a period when the cost of living in the Washington metro area has been rising steadily,” according to the letter. In 2011, before spending caps and sequestration, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected House salaries and expenses to rise to $1.867 billion in Fiscal Year 2021. However, the actual amount appropriated for this year was only $1.481 billion, or 20.7 percent less than the CBO’s 2011 projection.

The median salary in 2019 for a Legislative Assistant in the House was $55,306 and for a Press Secretary was $58,280. Median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the District of Columbia that year was $1,817 per month. According to a recent New America study, “the declining purchasing power of a Capitol Hill paycheck compels staff to leave the Hill after an average of three years.”

Low wages may be limiting access to Capitol Hill jobs, causing congressional offices to be staffed with personnel from high-wealth families who can make up the difference between low pay and high costs in the D.C. region. Representatives Hoyer and Jeffries urged, “[p]re-existing wealth should not be a barrier to entry for a career as a Congressional staffer.” 

Separately, on a members call with the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, Representative Hoyer reportedly called for an exploration of cutting the long-standing linkage between lawmaker pay and staff salaries, which caps staff pay from being more than members.