Congress Wins the COLA Wars

Fellow Blogger Ken Grandlund recently wrote this post, in which he pointed out that on top of all of their perks and privileges, our Congress voted on 11/18 to give themselves a $3,100 pay raise. This brings them to an annual salary of $165,200. Ken suggests that this is high, and given the current state of the economy, it feels to me a bit like a CEO running a company into the ground and then receiving a huge severance bonus when he leaves the now floundering company.

On the other hand, this is merely a 1.9% increase, so while one might take issue with how much higher the Congressional salary is than the average American whom they are supposed to represent, it probably only represents the difference in spending power of that congressional salary between 2004 and 2005. As a comment to Ken’s post, I added the following.

And keep in mind, this is the same group of idiots who have not allowed the minimum wage to increase in nearly a decade.

Sure, a 1.9% raise doesn't seem like all that much, really. A drop in the bucket as you say, and probably approximately equivalent to the increase in the cost of living, such that in constant dollars, there is no increase at all.

But if inflation is justification for a cost-of-living adjustment in Congressional salaries, then it is certainly justification for an adjustment in the salaries paid to the poorest Americans, the ones who are barely scraping by and can't afford to have their pay effectively CUT by inflation.

For reference, the best year to be on the minimum wage was 1968, when the wage (in 1996 dollars) was $7.21.

When I was in High School in the early 80s earning my $3.35/hour after school, I was earning a 1996 adjusted rate of between $5.90(1980) and $5.06 (1984), and that's the last time the wage has been over five 1996 dollars except for the year 1997, the last time the wage was increased (to $5.15, or $5.03 in 1996 dollars).

In 2005, the wage is $4.15 in 1996 dollars, the lowest buying power of the minimum wage since before 1955 (I don't know how much before, I can only find constant dollar references back to 1955).

So the rich get richer, the politicians keep their buying power, while the poor have programs cut and have the lowest buying power for their minimum wage in the last 50 years.

Where, exactly, is the compassion in "compassionate" conservative?

Liam.