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Salaries of House and their staff members

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 2:37 pm
by StriderV
Going to this site
http://www.legistorm.com/salaries/house_bonuses.html

I found that the average salary of a congressional staffer is about 80k (that graph shows amount per quarter, so you have to add 4 quarters). The salary of a congressman is $170k.
From some other site, I saw that the average number of staffers per congressman is 22.

So, each congressman costs us about $1.93 million. That times 435 equals $839.55 million

If we were to increase the size of the house to 6000, then the price of JUST the congressional salaries would be $1.02 BILLION. So, I don't see how this would be financially equivalent without reducing the compensation of our congressmen. It may make sense to reduce it anyway, as they are representing less citizens?

If you changed the salary amount to be equivalent to what is currently being spent, that would give each congressman $139,916. And, that's including their staffers!

Re: Salaries of House and their staff members

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:52 pm
by JEQuidam
As significant as they are, the salaries are a small piece of the puzzle. You have to look at the entirety of the problem. Representational enlargement produces a net cost reduction. This is explained in section 7 of of "Taking Back Our Republic". That section is titled "Enlarging Representation Reduces the Size of Government". Please read that carefully, including the footnotes.

Re: Salaries of House and their staff members

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 12:27 am
by USeagle
StriderV wrote:Going to this site
http://www.legistorm.com/salaries/house_bonuses.html

I found that the average salary of a congressional staffer is about 80k (that graph shows amount per quarter, so you have to add 4 quarters). The salary of a congressman is $170k.
From some other site, I saw that the average number of staffers per congressman is 22.

So, each congressman costs us about $1.93 million. That times 435 equals $839.55 million

If we were to increase the size of the house to 6000, then the price of JUST the congressional salaries would be $1.02 BILLION. So, I don't see how this would be financially equivalent without reducing the compensation of our congressmen. It may make sense to reduce it anyway, as they are representing less citizens?

If you changed the salary amount to be equivalent to what is currently being spent, that would give each congressman $139,916. And, that's including their staffers!
Forget about the staffers!!! If we reduce the ratio, then there is less need for staffers, the congressman or woman will be doing most of the work.