11 sats \ 2 replies \ @Cje95 OP 8 Oct \ parent \ on: Navigating Life When You Are Young With Chronic Illnesses Part Eight alter_native
She went private sector so the pay is a hell of a lot better with actual benefits lol its rough in Congress since we do not get the yearly inflation raises that the rest of the Federal workers get.
That's an interesting point. I've often thought that if we want better, less corrupt politicians, we should actually pay them more.
$175k is actually an absurdly low salary for the level of responsibility congressional representatives have. And their friends and peers probably make way more than that, which incentivizes them towards corrupt actions.
It's telling that Singapore's Prime Minister gets paid upwards of $1 million USD a year, and Singapore is often held up as an example of a well managed city.
(Libertarians here probably wouldn't see that as a good thing, but the way I see it is if the government is gonna have power, I at least want them to be smart about it. Right now it's like we have the worst of both worlds... too much govt power alongside inept and corrupt politicians.)
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I will say a lot of their travel and either apartment lease or hotel is paid for. There is a certain fund each personal office gets to cover things of that nature. However, to your point D.C. is a stupid expensive city from living here to food. In part due to the pay Member of Congress often are wealthy people who can afford to not make as much or they serve for X years before they go into the lobbying space because they didn't make anything for whatever amount of time they served in Congress.
They as in Congress only within the last couple of years increased the amount that a staffer could get paid and the reason was the pay discrepancy is stupid. I've been here ~2.5 years and my salary was $65k and that was with me making "good" money for my position as most make $60k. It is hard to justify the stress and hours the more you look into it and to know that for most staffers once you hit the $80 to $90k level you really platue... retention is hard for the best most experienced Congressional Staffers.
I have friends around my age with less on their resumes that because we know the people that we know and understand the way the government moves are making $175-$200k right now.
Pay alone though wouldn't fix it. Our benefits are way way way behind the private sector and our health insurance isn't good at all but is still stupidly expensive. We get free therapy at the Office of Wellness but really that's about it.
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