(Reuters) – WASHINGTON Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would set a minimum yearly salary for its employees at $45,000, months after a non-profit organization found that more than 12% of congressional aides did not earn a livable wage.
In a letter dated Friday, Pelosi told legislators, “I am delighted to announce that… the House will, for the first time ever, establish the minimum annual salary for employees at $45,000.”
She said that the change will take effect in September.
A non-profit group did research this year that found that one in eight congressional workers in Washington, DC, did not make enough money to live on.
The analysis compared congressional staff pay to the living wage in Washington, D.C., which, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is $42,610 for an adult without children.
Pelosi noted in her Friday letter that junior staff members “typically receive the lowest salary.” Punchbowl News first reported the letter.
Pelosi said, “This is also a question of justice, since many of the youngest employees who work the longest hours get the lowest wages.”
Over a hundred U.S. politicians, led by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, pushed for more money for congressional workers in order to keep more people.
(This item is re-posted to correct an error in paragraph 1)
