4 ms·

Sounds like they need to move to cheaper places and commute in like normal DMVers do.

alephnerd 3y ago
The hours on the Hill are insane. Starting work around 7-9am and finishing up by 8-9pm was fairly common. As such, you want to be close to work. It's essentially PM type hours without PM type pay. You easily earn more and work less hours as a GS 12-14 with much less stress (GS-15 sucks though because you start dealing with SES and Political Appointees)
- azemetre 3y ago
  In no sane world is >$150k bad pay in any city in the USA. Maybe Congress should build some dormitories and allow members to board with each other if they choose so. Maybe over time it will reduce the division between members when you’re forced to live with them and realize that they’re humans too. Congress barely passes any meaningful legislation, they shouldn’t be rewarded with more money. If I only shipped two features over two years at my job I’d be rightly fired. Certain members of Congress think that you can literally object to everything and grind things to halt then have the audacity to call this “government.” Force them to do their job and maybe they can discuss an additional raise (they already got one this year).
  - alephnerd 3y ago
    > In no sane world is >$150k bad pay in any city in the USA It's not bad on average, but it skews hiring towards the wealthy, as those without wealth (self made or generational) cannot build the wealth needed to afford a high CoL city like DC. Working 10-15 years on $30k as a staffer to end up making $150k at most as a lobbyist or maybe $174k as a House Rep while still having to pay off undergraduate and graduate school debt (and that too from private or private adjacent programs as where you studied does matter on the hill) means you have barely any savings to afford buying property or renting in most of the DMV. > Maybe Congress should build some dormitories and allow members to board with each other if they choose so They used to but stopped by the 90s for liability reasons. > Congress barely passes any meaningful legislation How do you define "meaningful"? It's the politics and PM equivalent of "Lines of Code" The rate of enacted and passed legislation has largely remained constant since the 1970s [0]. Most legislation and work done on the Hill doesn't come up on CNN/Fox/MSNBC/NewsNation/Twitter/TikTok/FB because it's topics that are mind numbing to most people who aren't nerds. [0] - https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/statistics https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/statistics

The hours on the Hill are insane. Starting work around 7-9am and finishing up by 8-9pm was fairly common. As such, you want to be close to work. It's essentially PM type hours without PM type pay. You easily earn more and work less hours as a GS 12-14 with much less stress (GS-15 sucks though because you start dealing with SES and Political Appointees)

azemetre 3y ago
In no sane world is >$150k bad pay in any city in the USA. Maybe Congress should build some dormitories and allow members to board with each other if they choose so. Maybe over time it will reduce the division between members when you’re forced to live with them and realize that they’re humans too. Congress barely passes any meaningful legislation, they shouldn’t be rewarded with more money. If I only shipped two features over two years at my job I’d be rightly fired. Certain members of Congress think that you can literally object to everything and grind things to halt then have the audacity to call this “government.” Force them to do their job and maybe they can discuss an additional raise (they already got one this year).
- alephnerd 3y ago
  > In no sane world is >$150k bad pay in any city in the USA It's not bad on average, but it skews hiring towards the wealthy, as those without wealth (self made or generational) cannot build the wealth needed to afford a high CoL city like DC. Working 10-15 years on $30k as a staffer to end up making $150k at most as a lobbyist or maybe $174k as a House Rep while still having to pay off undergraduate and graduate school debt (and that too from private or private adjacent programs as where you studied does matter on the hill) means you have barely any savings to afford buying property or renting in most of the DMV. > Maybe Congress should build some dormitories and allow members to board with each other if they choose so They used to but stopped by the 90s for liability reasons. > Congress barely passes any meaningful legislation How do you define "meaningful"? It's the politics and PM equivalent of "Lines of Code" The rate of enacted and passed legislation has largely remained constant since the 1970s [0]. Most legislation and work done on the Hill doesn't come up on CNN/Fox/MSNBC/NewsNation/Twitter/TikTok/FB because it's topics that are mind numbing to most people who aren't nerds. [0] - https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/statistics https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/statistics