Various state legislators around the country are calling it quits this year, in part because of the low pay
FILE - Connecticut State Representative Joe de la Cruz announces he will not be running for re-election during the opening day of the legislative session Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, at the State Capitol in Hartford, Conn. In efforts to raise the salaries of lawmakers, advocates in several states say there needs to be better pay to help improve diversity in statehouse ranks, in terms of race and ethnicity and economic background.
Lawmakers in other states, often those with part-time “citizen” legislatures, have raised similar complaints. In Oregon, where the base pay is about $33,000 a year, three women state representatives announced in March they are not seeking reelection because they can’t afford to support their families on a part-time salary for what’s really full-time work. They called the situation “unsustainable” in a joint resignation letter.
“It makes it more challenging for people who don’t have a lot of free time and need to rely on income to be able to perform their public service,” he said. “And it does make it an occupation that becomes more limited to the wealthy. And the wealthy in this country tend to be more white than people of color.”
There are roughly 1,600 millennial and Gen Z individuals serving in state legislatures and in Congress nationwide, and the Millennial Action Project said that number has grown in recent years. Reggie Paros, chief program officer for the nonpartisan organization supports legislators and members of Congress born after 1980, said younger lawmakers haven’t been in the workforce long enough to establish the financial stability needed to make up for a low-paying legislative job.
“But that change,” he said, “is perhaps going to be more difficult to achieve in the future if, in fact, the compensation that often gets offered for legislative services is lagging behind what most people during their working years would need to support themselves and their families.” Connecticut Rep. Bob Godfrey, a 17-term Democrat from Danbury who has proposed legislation increasing salaries for at least five years, recalled a plumber, manufacturing assembly line worker and a meter reader serving with him in the House during his early days. Godfrey, who relies on his legislative pay and Social Security to pay his bills, said he fears the lack of blue-collar workers “skews policymaking toward the affluent” in Connecticut.
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