Congressional pay raise in 2013?

• By Kellie Lunney; August 17, 2012

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Members of Congress are on track to receive a pay raise in 2013, unless they vote against it when they return from August recess.

The maximum pay boost lawmakers are eligible for in 2013 is 1.1 percent, or about $1,900 for most. The 1989 Ethics Reform Act created the current formula, which is based on changes in private sector wages as measured by the Employment Cost Index, and automatically takes effect unless Congress votes against it, or it’s more than the pay raise given to federal workers.

It’s unlikely that lawmakers, who earn $174,000 a year if they don’t hold leadership positions, will see an extra $1,900 in their paychecks next year for a few reasons. While the methods for determining the annual pay raises of lawmakers and federal employees vary slightly, the two are tied. Lawmakers’ annual pay adjustments cannot exceed the annual base pay adjustments of General Schedule employees. (Lawmakers do not receive locality pay.) When Congress approved a two-year pay freeze for government workers beginning January 2011, it effectively froze its own pay. In fact, lawmakers have denied themselves pay increases since 2009. Continue reading “Congressional pay raise in 2013?”