Not Working

Stories from American Workers

Light Work Load for Congress

While the unemployment rate in the U.S. remains stubbornly high–we’ve now been over 7% for nearly five years–the U.S. House of Representatives does not seem to be in any hurry to address and debate the problems with labor, let alone solve them. Between now and the end of the year, the House has exactly 16 working days scheduled, and there have been several reports in recent weeks that the Republican leadership is considering reducing that number even further.

What’s more, Eric Cantor recently released the 2014 work schedule and it includes a total of 113 working days. That’s down from 126 in 2013 and certainly far fewer work days than most Americans who are lucky enough to have a job (or two or three or…)

The pay rate for a US representative is $174,000 annually. Given the 2014 schedule, this means that members of the House of Representatives will make approximately $1,539.82 per day or, assuming an eight-hour work day, roughly $192.47 per hour.

Imagine that.

Consider this in the context of a government shutdown that cost you and me and all other tax payers $24 billion.

Consider this in light of the fact that Congress still has not yet passed a jobs bill.

Regardless of your political affiliation, surely all Americans would like to see their federal representative working hard to address the systematic problems that plague our work force.

The least we can do is take two minutes to call or write to our representative so the entire House knows that we would like to see the body working a bit harder. Maybe a few more hours on the job can lead to a few more solutions.

A guy can hope.

Onward.

 

Comments are closed.