Lawmakers Getting Paid $608 an Hour to Do Nothing
With midterm elections just around the corner, Congress won’t be spending much time on Capitol Hill. That leaves plenty of time doing what they do best – nothing – and getting paid handsomely for it. But just how much are we talking? The Hill reports: “Congress will be in session for only eight days during a 102-day span between Aug. 1 and Nov. 12, when lawmakers are set to return for a lame-duck session after the elections. Because the annual salary for members of the House is $174,000, their hourly wage for those eight days amounts to $608 per hour, presuming 10-hour workdays. That’s several times the hourly compensation of anesthesiologists, one of the highest-earning professions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at $113 an hour on average.” There’s another difference: Anesthesiologists are in the business of helping patients; Congress is getting paid nearly six times that amount to screw you over. More…
