Congressional Hispanic staffers ask for pay hike in open letter

The Congressional Hispanic Staff Association (CHSA), a bipartisan congressional staff organization, has urged Congress to take immediate action and issue salary increases for staff.

In open letters to chiefs of staff in both chambers of Congress shared with The Hill, the CHSA has urged them to take action toward bolstering entry-level and junior staff salaries.

The CHSA noted that, according to payroll data detailed in a January 2022 Issue One report, 1 in 8 congressional staffers in Washington, D.C., do not make a living wage.

It demanded that the 5.5 percent increase in the Senators’s Official Personnel and Office Expense Allowance (SOPOEA) and the 21 percent increase in Member Representational Allowance (MRA) funding Congress received last month should be used to help the Senate and House staff with what it says is “a much needed pay raise.”

The organization added that “the most current Massachusetts Institute of Technology living wage calculation for a single person without children living in the District of Columbia is $43,258. Yet, a 2021 House Compensation and Diversity Study report found the average medium annual salary in a Member Office for a staff assistant was $37,500 and for a legislative correspondent was $42,000.”

It further urged Congress to take action at “a critical time for staffers who are paid at the lowest levels in your office to receive an increase in pay as today’s high cost of living continues to rise.”

The letters added that staffers on payroll making the least have not received a minimum of an 8.5 percent cost of living adjustment to their salary — which the organization said is equal to the inflation rate over the past year — and demanded Congress provide them with one.

This move is similar to the statement written by the Congressional Black Associates (CBA) this month, in which that organization demanded a pay rise for all congressional staffers, “specifically Black and POC staffers who often find themselves struggling to make ends meet while working for the American people.”