SEVEN TEA PARTY Freshmen SPENT More Than $100,000 In TAXPAYER MONEY On Personal Cars

[JDPriestly]

65. Compared to other Americans, members of Congress earn a good salary.

The current salary (2006) for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $165,200 per year.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/aa031200a.htm

Per the Daily Caller:

According to the report, members of Congress receive an annual salary of $174,000 — which alone puts them in the highest-paid 5 percent of U.S. workers. They also, however, receive a host of additional benefits that put their total annual compensation at around $285,000. By comparison, the average full-time American employee earns just $50,875 annually.

. . . .

The groups point out that if congressional salaries were cut to $100,000, taxpayers could save $39 million each year. (RELATED: Gingrich worth at least $6.7 million, has paid off Tiffany account)

http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/27/report-members-of-congress-earn-3-4-times-more-than-the-average-u-salary/

I think that $50,875 is a high figure for the average pay for the full-time American employee at $50. Besides, so many Americans can't get full-time work now, so the actual take-home pay is less than the article states in my opinion.

And when you talk about median pay, I think you get a more realistic figure:

The annual median wage fell in 2010 for the second year in a row to $26,364, a 1.2 percent drop from 2009, and the lowest level since 1999, according to David Cay Johnston at Reuters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/us-incomes-falling-as-optimism-reaches-10-year-low_n_1022118.html

So, the basic pay for members of Congress is several times the pay of the average worker and/or the median wage for workers.