There's a reason why in the US, the federal Constitution contains explicit clauses to stop things like Congress voting themselves an unaccountable salary increa

There's a reason why in the US, the federal Constitution contains explicit clauses to stop things like Congress voting themselves an unaccountable salary increase (it can't take effect for any individual member until after their next election) or creating/giving raises to other government positions they'll switch into (after creating or raising the pay of a position, they become ineligible to hold it until after their term in Congress expires -- which led to some interesting debates over whether it's legal to reduce a previously-raised salary to its original level in order to appoint a current member of Congress to it).