General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTie the minimum wage & SS to the percentage raise US Congress gets every YEAR!
Problem solved.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)stop giving themselves raises in order to keep from giving the minimum wage and SS raises. Did you see how many politicians were willing to donate their paychecks to charity during the shutdown? Like that meant anything. They are already millionaires and donating their paychecks for a couple of weeks didn't hurt them at all.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)"One group on which the measure is not neutral is members of Congress themselves: It denies them a raise in 2014. That will be the fifth straight year, and sixth out of the last eight, in which congressional pay has been frozen."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/10/21/pay-raise-would-be-wide-reaching-but-exclude-members-of-congress/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/15/congress-pay-salaries/2660545/
Igel
(35,197 posts)There are those, rooted more in belief than knowledge. Even if the information about the "percentage" increase Congress gets "each year" is just a Google search away.
tritsofme
(17,325 posts)They have suspended raises for the past several years already while getting nothing in return.
All of these "punish congressmen" schemes are foolhardy.
Whether it's something like this, or denying them health benefits contingent on something or another.
The vast majority of congressmen are millionaires to whom these serve as moderate annoyances at worst, it only punishes the few of more modest means who actually rely on their government salary and benefits. It makes serving in Congress unaffordable to them.
Omaha Steve
(99,073 posts)I didn't think to fact check. I learned that from Fox.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/15/congress-pay-salaries/2660545/
By law, Congress obtains an annual automatic pay adjustment, equivalent to the prior year's average private sector wage change. However, the raise can't be a higher percentage than for other federal employees.
Congress can vote to delay or deny this raise and has done so five times since the last increase in 2009, most recently in January of this year. If each of those increases had gone into effect, congressional pay would today be 5.5% higher, still less than inflation.