aoc-living-wage-staff-52000-white-house

So, I've seen this go back and forth - "AOC pays her staff a living wage!" Some people cheer.

"Yeah, but SHE doesn't pay them, the taxpayers pay them! AOC is SO dumb." Other people cheer.

So, trying to get to the bottom of who is right here, this is what I found.

"The personnel allowance is part of the Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA), which the Committee on House Administration appropriates every year. It is exactly the same amount for every member, and was $944,671 in 2013."

Now, each Congressperson doesn't have to spend that on salaries, "many House members often have the budget to raise salaries, they choose not to, funneling their personnel allowances into funding for other expenses instead."

So, AOC is ACTUALLY doing good by her staffers by paying them more, and is not causing any extra cost to the taxpayer. All she's really doing is paying her staff more at the expense of cutting corners in other areas of her office. I'd definitely be interested to see what corners she is cutting (some of which, I just found out are that she pays her top staffers LESS than the average [$80k instead of $147k as happens in other offices])- but also, what splurges other Congresspeople are benefitting from instead of paying their staff more.

Bottom line here - AOC pays her staff more and it doesn't cost the taxpayer a dime extra. That's a win for her and them.

http://time.com/3105933/congress-staff-pay/