Does this not incentivise them to prop up the overpayed class of management so they can point to is as a comparable?
Comment on Make Congress Earn Average American Wage.
tburkhol@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Always fascinates me that the knee jerk solution to ‘government service sucks’ is ‘pay the service providers less.’
I like the idea of tying congressional compensation to median or minimum wage, so they’re motivated to improve that statistic (although Goodhart’s law), but it’s got to be enough to compete with other jobs with similar level of responsibility & authority. Median income jobs include K-8 teachers, tax prep, social work, & occupational safety; congress is basically the country’s board of directors, and S&P 500 directors average around $300k, or 4.5x median.
The real problem with congress is it’s so easy to funnel nearly unlimited money to politicians’ control - it may not be salary, and there may be restrictions, but campaign donations provide an awful lot of opportunities for diversion. Massive campaign & campaign finance reforms, in ways that would probably set SCOTUS into a rage, be a real step toward making congress more accountable to the 90%.
Krankenwagen@lemmy.world 1 day ago
tburkhol@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
You’d use median income as the benchmark, but give them a current (or historical) multiplier. Fun fact: before 1970, the board of directors was a prestige position, almost always unpaid. Before 1980, average (mean) CEO salary was pretty close to mean worker salary, which would probably have been around 2x median.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Congresspeople are not the service providers. The various agencies are the service providers. Congress controls the pay to those providers.
Nobody here has asked for the service providers to take a pay cut. OP is asking for Congress to take a pay cut until the service providers under their control are providing a higher level of service.
Congress’s report card is the well-being of the public. In the subject of “Financial Wellness”, their grade is “$66,621”.
They aren’t being asked for a pay cut. When they improve their grade to “$174,000”, they will be entitled to their current pay. When they raise it to “$250,000”, they will be entitled to a substantial raise. It’s only a pay cut if they insist on causing harm.