Your absentee lawmakers
90% of life is showing up … What’s that smell? … And the Jetsons premiered in 1962.
Lawmakers love to complain about how little they get paid.
But they also don’t work very much. Officially.
Yes, being a part-time citizen legislator can be an all-consuming, full-time job.
It can also be very part-time, as records of lawmakers’ attendance for the year show.
Lawmakers earn a base salary of $24,000 per year. But when you stack that on top of their daily allowance, plus mileage repayments for travel, some of them are pulling in close to six figures.1
All while working about one-and-a-half “workdays” per week on average, when spread over the course of a year.
In that light, the $24,000 base salary doesn’t sound so absurd. (Not to mention they get cush state benefits, free meals from lobbyists and a decent retirement system).
The Senate floor met a total of 66 days this year.
The House met for 77 days.
Yet only three senators and four representatives had a perfect attendance rate for the year.
Some lawmakers missed almost a quarter of all work days.
So who’s putting in the hours on your behalf, and who’s so chronically absent that we should probably call a truancy officer?
Let’s do the gold star list first.