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Q: average income of members of the u.s. congress ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: average income of members of the u.s. congress
Category: Relationships and Society > Government
Asked by: cweigl-ga
List Price: $5.00
Posted: 21 Oct 2002 08:13 PDT
Expires: 20 Nov 2002 07:13 PST
Question ID: 85943
what is the average income of members of the current u.s. congress
(senate & house)? please provide link and/or reference.
Answer  
Subject: Re: average income of members of the u.s. congress
Answered By: knowledge_seeker-ga on 21 Oct 2002 08:34 PDT
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
Hi cweigl-ga,


The 2002 pay rate for members of congress is $150,000 per year. Rate
for Leaders is $161,200 per year; Rate for Speaker is $186,300 per
year.


Congressional Pay Rates  
http://www.congresslink.org/sources/salaries.html


In addition to their salary – 

“Members of Congress are also allowed to make an additional maximum 15
percent of their salary from outside sources, like speaking, legal
practice and consulting. In addition, they are allowed unlimited
income from book royalties.”

They also receive retirement and health benefits the same as any other
government employee.

Salaries and Benefits of U.S. Congress Members
http://usgovinfo.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa031200a.htm

Glad to have answered your question –

-K~

search term:  congress pay rate

Request for Answer Clarification by cweigl-ga on 21 Oct 2002 09:24 PDT
thanks. unfortunately, it wasn't the congressional pay rate i was
interested in. i already had that information. it was _income_ that i
asked about, and most members of congress have sources of income
outside their government paychecks.  rep. amory houghton, for example,
has assets of over $420million. i imagine that his income (from all
sources) is more than $150,000.

i have been able to find info on the number of millionaires there are
in the house and senate (71 & 28 respectively), but i can't find any
stats on average total income.

any suggestions there?

c.

Clarification of Answer by knowledge_seeker-ga on 22 Oct 2002 09:06 PDT
Hi again cweigl-ga,

Sorry I missed on your answer there. The confusion was your use of the
term “income” -- very different from the word “asset.”   I think we
need to clarify a couple of things and then I’ll do my best to address
your question.  I understand that you may already be aware of these
distinctions, but I’m going over them so I can be sure we’re both on
the same page here.

INCOME is the money coming in. That is money you are earning, either
by way of being paid for work, interest, investment returns, running a
business, or selling something. That was the amount I addressed above.

ASSETS are everything you already own – house, car, stocks,
properties, bank accounts, etc. Assets are only converted to income if
you sell them.

LIABILITIES are any financial obligations, debts, or potential debts a
person has.

NET WORTH is what a person is worth if you take the value of all of
his/her assets and subtract the value of his/her liabilities.

You also used the term “MILLIONAIRE.” When a person is described as a
millionaire, this does not mean that he/she has an INCOME of a million
dollars a year. It also does not mean his ASSETS are worth over a
million dollars. It means he/she has a NET WORTH of over a million
dollars.

So, I hope that I understand you correctly in that you really want to
know the average NET WORTH of our elected officials in congress. If
so, that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

This is the absolute closest I can get to a real number --- According
to a 2000 Stanford study, in 1992 the median net worth of a
congressional representative was $365,000.

How Much Would It Take to Buy Out a Congressional Seat? 
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/research/reports/2000/groseclose.html

Take the Money or Run
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/community/bmag/sbsm0002/faculty_research_buyoff.html

============================
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE ISSUES
============================

Here is the difficulty ---

“High-level government officials of all three branches are required to
file financial disclosure reports. … In general, these reports require
the disclosure of most assets and sources of income; liabilities;
gifts; fiduciary or employment positions held; continuing arrangements
with former employers; purchases, sales and exchanges of certain
assets; and, for first-time filers, the names of their major clients
if they had been engaged in providing services for a fee prior to
government employment….”

“The U.S. financial disclosure system, however, is not designed to
detect illicit enrichment; it DOES NOT REQUIRE DISCLOSURE OF NET
WORTH.”  [emphasis mine]

http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0800/ijde/ley.htm

------------------------------------------
RULE XXVI  -  Financial Disclosure
http://www.house.gov/rules/RXXVI.htm

-------------------------------------------

Theoretically, a person could examine the individual financial filings
for all 535 representatives and calculate at least an approximation of
average net worth. But, apart from the exorbitant amount of time that
would take, the logistics are not all that straightforward --

THE U.S. SENATE: Government-by-Millionaires

“Since senators are only required to list their personal finances in
broad ranges - $250,001 to $500,000, for example - it is difficult to
determine a member's precise net worth. But previous surveys have
shown that nearly half of the 100 senators are millionaires.”

FREE INTERNET NEWS – “THE U.S. SENATE: Government-by-Millionaires”
http://www.worldfreeinternet.net/news/nws171.htm

-----------------------------------------------

Going back to your original statement regarding INCOME. The only way
to accurately determine how much a representative claims in personal
income, you’d have to have access to his/her tax returns.  Right now
congress does not require representatives to make their tax returns
public (though some do voluntarily). The financial disclosure
requirements are in broad categories making income impossible to nail
down --

“The source and type of income which consists of dividends, rents,
interest, and capital gains, received during the preceding calendar
year …and an indication of which of the following categories the
amount or value of such item of income is within…”

(vi) greater than $50,000 but not more than $100,000, 
(vii) greater than $100,000 but not more than $1,000,000, 
(viii) greater than $1,000,000 but not more than $5,000,000”

http://www.house.gov/rules/RXXVI.htm


Finally, on that same page scroll down to:

“ (2) A reporting individual need not report the holdings of or the
source of income from any of the holdings of ..”

… and you will find an entire list of income sources that members of
congress are not require to disclose.

So, as you can see, exact figures for income or net worth for our
elected officials is not really available in a straightforward, easily
accessible format.

I hope what I’ve explained has been clear for you and that the
additional information proves useful. Here is one other site that I
have found helpful --

INVESTOR WORDS
http://www.investorwords.com/cgi-bin/getword.cgi?497&blind%20trust


Thanks for your question and thank you for giving me an opportunity to
clarify it for you.

Regards –

-K~
cweigl-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars
wow. after a request for clarification (due to my own vagueness) i got
a great, detailed answer. i'm very satifsied, despite my answer being
that there's no way to answer the question.

Comments  
Subject: Re: average income of members of the u.s. congress
From: scholasticus-ga on 27 Feb 2005 13:47 PST
 
I was looking for the answer to the net worth of members of Congress
and came upon your discussion here....

You correctly out that "Theoretically, a person could examine the
individual financial filings for all 535 representatives and calculate
at least an approximation of average net worth. But, apart from the
exorbitant amount of time that would take, the logistics are not all
that straightforward --"

I agree; but I did find a partial answer in a CNN story from June 2003
that partially did the research for us. It included the net worth of
the 40 millionaires in the Senate. The story is here
[http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/13/senators.finances/]
but, of course, will disappear one day. 

These "top 40" were worth, collectively, $626 million. 

I'm still searching for something even more interesting: take the 535
members of Congress; show what their net worth was when they entered
Congress and then show what their net worth is today. I think we'd all
be astonished, horrified, and embarrassed.

If anyone stumbles upon this information, hopefully he/she can share it here.

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