CAN A COUNTRY BE RUN LARGELY BY 24 YEARS OLD ?

 An in-depth look at U.S. Congressional staff employment trends raises questions about whether the U.S. Congress has the support necessary to do its job.

• There is a pay gap between Washington-based House personal office staff earnings and people doing equivalent work in the DC metropolitan area. That gap may encourage staff to seek greener pastures while depriving Congress of experience and expertise. The gap is widest at the top. For example, a chief of staff on average would earn 40% more in the private sector than on Capitol Hill.
• There has been a decrease in the total number of Hill staff over the last two decades. With a competitive and thriving market for former hill talent, market forces and difficult working conditions have pushed many talented people into the arms of the private sector. Indeed, the average age of a DC-based House personal office staffer is 31. Ex-staffers who become lobbyists can increase their earnings by many multiples, a value derived from their Congressional employment.
• Fewer staff engaged in policy-making roles. There are fewer House staff and fewer legislative support agency personnel now than at any time in the recent past.
• Average salaries for most Washington-based House personal staff have not increased in two decades, and may have decreased for many. Consequently, staff may find that longevity brings them diminishing benefits and prompt them to bring their skills elsewhere.
• High turnover and lack of experience in congressional offices are leaving staffs increasingly without policy and institutional knowledge leaving a vacuum that usually is filled by lobbyists.
• Most Senate staffers have worked in the Capitol for less than three years. For most, it is their first job ever. In House offices, one-third of staffers are in their first year, while only 1 in 3 has worked there for five years or more.
• Among the aides who work on powerful committees where the legislation takes shape, resumes are a little longer: Half have four years of experience.
• The size of committee and members’ staffs have remained the same over the past decade, and salaries have often not risen with inflation or at all. It means that young workers have proximity to enormous power while surviving on a meager salaries compared to highly paid lobbyists. But it also means that staffers are often forced to rely on lobbyists while they still work for Congress, sometimes for the purest of reasons: While lobbyists with decades of experience in energy policy or other arcane areas are common, such depth of experience is nearly nonexistent on Capitol Hill.
• As policy questions more frequently hinge on the nuances of technical matters, members of Congress are operating without the researchers and topical experts on which they have relied to cast informed votes.

Comparison with the EP

Based in Brussels, Luxembourg or Strasbourg, Accredited MEP Assistants have a contract with the European Parliament, which pays the compensation from its budget. The budget is funded by taxpayers in member states. Local assistants based in member states have different rules.

There are two kinds of Accredited Assistants, those responsible for administration and secretarial support, and those with policy input and greater responsibilities. This second group are paid depending on which of the 13 salary grades their MEP gives them. The lowest grade is paid a basic wage of €2,957.06, which increases to €7,802.33 a month at the highest grade. The final six grades are only available to those with degrees or equivalent professional experience. 

For administration and support, the Assistants are paid from between €1,694.24 and €2,957.06. Their hours are set by their MEP, but they are not allowed to work more than 42 hours per week.