Pay and Perquisites

Disputes over pay levels have been a feature of congressional politics since the First Congress. The Constitution settled one key question concerning pay by decreeing that members would be paid by the federal [Page p343]government, rather than by the states they represented. But the Constitution left up to members themselves the delicate question of the level of pay. Members have raised their pay many times over the past two centuries but often have suffered politically at the hands of the electorate as a result.

The first pay raise, in 1815, was a 60 percent hike from $6 a day to $1,500 a year in 1815. It had to be repealed the next year after scores of members were defeated for reelection. Congress did not regain an annual salary until 1855.

In the past, economic and political problems have sometimes led Congress to reduce pay levels, or to pay one chamber more than the other, or to leave salaries alone for years as inflation gnawed at purchasing power. Members had no pay raise from 1969 to 1975 while the cost of living rose by nearly 50 percent. Members have tried to avoid political retaliation by devising automatic mechanisms for pay increases, such as independent commissions to recommend pay levels or presidential responsibility for congressional pay raises. But more often than not these mechanisms failed, since there was no way to prevent Congress from voting on the issue. In early 1989 Speaker Jim Wright's maneuvers to prevent the House from voting to block a recommended pay raise provoked severe public criticism. His attempt failed; it also undercut support for Wright's leadership and contributed to his resignation five months later.

Slightly more successful have been annual cost-of-living increases for members, linked to those for all federal employees. Congress in 1989 set these adjustments a little under the rate of inflation. But the increases could still be challenged by floor votes.

The Twenty-seventh Amendment forbade a pay raise from taking effect until a congressional election had taken place. The amendment was first proposed by James Madison in 1789 as part of the group of amendments that became the Bill of Rights. It was originally ratified by six states, was ratified by a seventh in 1873, and then lay dormant until Wyoming picked it up in 1978. Other states followed, and after the large pay raises of 1989 and 1991, enough states ratified it by 1992 to make it official. Despite lingering questions about whether the early ratifications were still valid, Congress declined to interfere with such a popular proposal.

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