Pay Benefits for Congressmen

Did you ever wonder what your Congressmen and Senators are paid? The answer is $165,200/ year, four times the median household income in the United States.

Another perk is that their pension benefits are out of this world. Last summer Congress passed a new Pension “Protection” Act, a bill that undermined the funding rules for pensions which significantly limits pension benefits. However, Congressional pensions were specifically exempt from these limitations.

After only five years on the job, Congressmen and Senators are entitled to a regular pension, bigger than almost all other federal workers' at the same pay and twice what a midlevel executive would expect. Their pensions rise regularly with the cost of living and can never be taken away — short of a conviction for espionage or treason-related offenses.

Health care benefits are also a generous perk for our Congressmen. Congressmen enjoy more than a dozen options in health insurance, including the prized indemnity plans only 3% of workers with coverage receive. On top of that, for an annual fee of $480, they can get just about all the medical attention they want at the Capitol Office of the Attending Physician, which has five doctors and a dozen assistants on call for routine checkups, tests, prescriptions, emergency care and mental health services. Who's paying for all this above the $420 each Congressman pays? Taxpayers, naturally, to the tune of at least $2.5 million this year alone.

This litany of fringe benefits goes on and on; and I recommend that you look at http://tinyurl.com/y8vyyy7 for more information on this subject.