House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday morning that for the first time there would be a minimum salary of $45,000 annually for House aides.
'With a competitive minimum salary, the House will better be able to retain and recruit excellent, diverse talent. Doing so will open the doors to public service for those who may not have been able to afford to do so in the past,' Pelosi wrote in a 'dear colleague' letter. 'This is also an issue of fairness, as many of the youngest staffers working the longest hours often earn the lowest salaries.'
Pelosi also said that the House would vote next week on a resolution, put forward by Rep. Andy Levin, a Michigan Democrat, that would give Congressional workers the right to unionize.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday morning that for the first time there would be a minimum salary of $45,000 annually for House aides
Entry-level salaries on Capitol Hill are notoriously low for workers who live in the high cost-of-living Washington, D.C. and surrounding suburbs
'When the House passes this resolution, we will pave the way for staffers to join [a] union, if they so choose,' Pelosi said. 'Congressional staffers deserve the same fundamental rights and protections as workers all across the country, including the right to bargain collectively.'
Traditionally, salaries of House staff are left to the discretion of the individual member, who is given a Members Representational Allowance that they divvy up between their hires.
But this has led to entry-level salaries being abysmally low for workers who live in the high cost-of-living Washington, D.C. and surrounding suburbs.
In a January 2022 report produced by Issue One, researchers looked at Legistorm salary data to conclude that 13 per cent of D.C.-based Congressional staff, essentially one in eight workers, made less than a living wage in 2020.
MIT estimated that a living wage of a childless person living in Washington, D.C. is $42,610.
Even before she took the oath of office in January
