Congressional Progressive Staff Association and Demand Progress Action Call on Senate Leadership to Increase Staff Pay Floor to $45,000
The CPSA letter was signed by 150 current congressional staffers, while the letter led by advocacy organization Demand Progress Action was signed by over 15 organizations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2022
CONTACT
CPSA Press Steward
CPSA.info@mail.house.gov
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Congressional Progressive Staff Association (CPSA) and Demand Progress Action sent two letters to Senator Pro-Tempore Patrick Leahy and Senate Leadership calling for the upper chamber to match the House’s commitment to paying their staff a minimum salary of $45,000 a year.
Following the release of CPSA’s survey data analyzing workplace conditions of over 500 staffers in both the House and Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a pay floor of $45,000 for all congressional staffers in the House. This will officially become House policy on September 1st, but thousands of staffers in the Senate will still be making less than $45,000 a year without further action from Senate Leadership.
Writing as the “staffers who make up the fabric of your offices,” the signers of the letter say that “establishing a minimum salary floor of $45,000 for Senate staff would be a welcome change for the staffers who commit their lives to this institution. Like House staffers, Senate staff struggle to pay rent, bills, and keep food on the table.
Compensating Senate staff fairly would not only enable current staff to keep their heads above water while the cost of living rises across the country, but it would also open more doors in the halls of Congress to those who wish to make their country a better place.
These letters come after recent findings that staffers of color across both parties make on average only 91 percent as much as their white staff counterparts – or around $5,600 less each year.
150 current congressional staffers signed onto the CPSA letter, and all signatories were verified to be CPSA members and congressional staffers.
This push for a pay floor in the Senate is widely supported by 16 good government organizations, who also penned a letter this week to chamber leadership on the importance of improving compensation for Senate junior-level staffers. The letter was organized by Demand Progress.
"Congressional staff are the lifeblood of Congress and providing a $45,000 pay floor for full-time Senate staff demonstrates Senate lawmakers' vested interest in providing a living wage for its workforce," said Taylor J. Swift, policy advisor for Demand Progress Action. "Investing in the congressional workforce, especially for entry- and mid-level congressional staffers, creates an incentive for current staffers to stay in Congress longer and also provides a better opportunity for others to work in public service who may not have been able to afford to do so previously."
CPSA was formed in June 2021 to amplify the voices and experiences of progressive staffers, to advocate for progressive issues impacting our membership, and to fight for fair working conditions for congressional employees. The association currently has over 1,100 members and is growing every day.
Demand Progress Action is a national grassroots group with over 1.5 million affiliated activists who fight for basic rights and freedoms needed for a modern democracy. Demand Progress Action has spent years pushing for better working conditions and pay for congressional staffers and greater public access to legislative information.