That is the million-dollar question because a ton of the government jobs are either hybrid or remote now so the government buildings themselves are super super low on occupancy.

The big three firms have had some pretty recent and significant rounds of layoffs/non-contract renewals. The district does itself no favors with having taxes on everything I mean when you get your hair cut there is an "environmental fee" for god's sake.

There is a super odd dynamic in the city right now where for people who live in the city as getting crushed but traveling to work is a huge issue so a lot of workers are essentially trapped. I think the entertainment and restaurant side of things is only able to stay afloat right now due to tourists. The tourists booming right now and that seems to be what is keeping people afloat.

Congressional staff like myself do not benefit from when the Federal workers get an inflation-related pay raise like Biden has been doing the last few years. Congress hasn't increased spending on themselves to really retain the best staffers as well. It is a huge catch-22 as people like myself get kinda fucked over. I love the work and who I work with otherwise this wouldn't be worth it since I can make so much more in the private sector.

Going into 2023 I received a raise of less than 3% when Federal workers across the government received double-digit raises due to inflation. Our salaries themselves are already low and it wasn't until 2022 that the House put in a floor that you had to pay staff at least 45k a year. I knew staffers who were making $35k so they had to have second and third jobs. I've been at the Committee I work on for over 2 years and I still do not make a salary that is considered middle-class ($80-100k) for reference.

Within my coworker group the policy staff really makes at most the $80k level and the heads of the subcommittees and the committee at large make low to mid 6 figures. Its talked about openly that if you have a family and you make $150k on the hill you either A have to live in an apartment or B have to leave the hill to make enough to afford life in DC.