'It would be smart': WaPo editorial board thinks Congress needs a raise

Members of Congress are long overdue for a pay raise – and lawmakers should do just that for themselves when they reconvene Friday, according to the editorial board of the Washington Post.

And that includes even the members you don’t like, the editorial board wrote Thursday in an opinion piece that makes the case in favor of a pay boost, which the publication noted hasn’t happened since 2009.

The stagnant salary coupled with the high cost of living in Washington D.C. is one reason lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are retiring, according to the six-member editorial board. And that’s a problem, they added.

“If lawmakers’ pay had risen with the cost of living, their current salary would be $243,300, according to the Congressional Research Service,” the editorial board said. “If Americans want a Congress that draws on the best of America, in which anyone can afford to serve, they should want their representatives to be more competitively compensated.”

ALSO READ: How come everything the GOP stands for involves other people dying?

While the board acknowledged the current political and economic climate might appear to be “a bad time” to weigh raising congressional wages – especially as public polling shows just 17 percent of Americans support the job Congress is doing – it's a necessary move.

“Actually, it would be smart," they wrote. “Members of the House and Senate haven’t received any bump to their $174,000 annual salary since 2009, and that’s bad for the country. The 27th Amendment stipulates that lawmakers may not raise their own pay — just that of future Congresses. Friday’s new Congress should do so for the next.”

The Post concluded its argument for a federal lawmaker pay bump by saying the “danger” of leaving the salary in place would be that “highly qualified people – particularly talented young Americans” dismiss careers in public service.

And, they added, other countries such as Singapore pay “significantly more to their civil servants than the United States does.”