Staff Pay Levels for Selected Positions in Senate Committees, FY2001-FY2014

Summary

The level of pay for congressional staff is a source of recurring questions among Members of Congress, congressional staff, and the public. There may be interest in congressional pay data from multiple perspectives, including assessment of the costs of congressional operations; guidance in setting pay levels for staff in committee offices; or comparison of congressional staff pay levels with those of other federal government pay systems.

This report provides pay data for 13 staff position titles used in Senate committees. The positions include the following: Chief Clerk, Chief Counsel, Communications Director, Counsel, Legislative Assistant, Minority Chief Counsel, Minority Staff Director, Press Secretary, Professional Staff Member, Senior Counsel, Staff Assistant, Staff Director, and Systems Administrator.

Tables provide tabular pay data for each Senate committee staff position. Graphic displays are also included, providing representations of pay from three perspectives, including the following:

a line graph showing change in pay, depending on data availability;

a comparison at 5-, 10-, and 14-year intervals from FY2014, depending on data availability, of the cumulative percentage change of pay for that position, to the change in pay of Members of Congress and federal civilian workers paid under the General Schedule in Washington, DC, and surrounding areas; and

distributions of FY2014 pay, when available, in $10,000 increments.

In the past five years (FY2010 and FY2014), the change in median pay, in constant 2015 dollars, ranged from a 2.92% increase for systems administrators to a -24.41% decrease for counsels. Of 11 staff positions for which data were available in FY2010 and FY2014, 2 saw pay increases while 9 saw declines (data are not available in FY2010 or FY2014 for communications directors and press secretaries). This may be compared to changes over approximately the same period (calendar years 2010-2014) to the pay of Members of Congress, -7.89%, and General Schedule, DC, -6.97%.

Pay data for staff working in House committee offices are available in CRS Report R44322, Staff Pay Levels for Selected Positions in House Committees, 2001-2014. Data describing the pay of congressional staff working in the personal offices of Senators and Members of the House are available in CRS Report R44324, Staff Pay Levels for Selected Positions in Senators’ Offices, FY2001-FY2014, and CRS Report R44323, Staff Pay Levels for Selected Positions in House Member Offices, 2001-2014, respectively.