Various state lawmakers aren't seeking reelection this year, in part because of low pay. Though multiple states proposed bills to increase salaries, so far they have faltered as some legislators fear the move will rankle voters.
Connecticut legislators haven’t seen an increase in their $28,000 base pay in 21 years.
Arturo Vargas, CEO of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said he believes that low pay, coupled with the threats and picketing some lawmakers and their families have received over issues like COVID-19 rules, will discourage people of modest means from running. And that often means people of color.“It makes it more challenging for people who don’t have a lot of free time and need to rely on income to be able to perform their public service,” he said.
There are roughly 1,600 millennial and Gen Z individuals serving in state legislatures and in Congress nationwide, and the Millennial Action Project said that number has grown in recent years. Reggie Paros, chief program officer for the nonpartisan organization supports legislators and members of Congress born after 1980, said younger lawmakers haven’t been in the workforce long enough to establish the financial stability needed to make up for a low-paying legislative job.
“But that change,” he said, “is perhaps going to be more difficult to achieve in the future if, in fact, the compensation that often gets offered for legislative services is lagging behind what most people during their working years would need to support themselves and their families.” Connecticut Rep. Bob Godfrey, a 17-term Democrat from Danbury who has proposed legislation increasing salaries for at least five years, recalled a plumber, manufacturing assembly line worker and a meter reader serving with him in the House during his early days. Godfrey, who relies on his legislative pay and Social Security to pay his bills, said he fears the lack of blue-collar workers “skews policymaking toward the affluent” in Connecticut.
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