He’s not alone: AOC and others have argued lawmakers should be paid more in order to protect against corruption and make the job more accessible.

  • @antihumanitarian@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1110 months ago

    While it sounds absurd, between travel expenses and needing to maintain residency in the state and the very expensive DC, $174,000 really doesn’t stretch very far. Instead of just paying them more, a housing and transit stipend might be prudent.

    • @restingboredface@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      910 months ago

      I read a proposal a while back about creating a dorm-like apartment complex for legislators that would be included free with the job with strong incentives to live there over private homes. This would also have the added benefit of improving personal relationships between the representatives so that they would be more inclined to work together and collaborate across party lines.

    • @KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      510 months ago

      Yeah, I’d be much more inclined to agree with your last sentence. The fact that a second residency and travel is required, means they should be covered by their employer. In this case, that’s us, which means it should be covered by our taxes.

      If this was any other profession, it wouldn’t be an out of pocket cost.

    • @Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      510 months ago

      When someone cannot afford the necessary means to do their job in any other context, we don’t raise their pay.