Congressional Pay Freeze

Lately we've been writing a lot about pay freeze proposals swirling around Washington--and indeed, the whole country. And every time we do, it seems that at least one person heads to the comments section and chimes in with the thought that Congress ought to limit its own pay increases, too. Here are a couple of examples:

• "I wonder if our Senators and Congressmen will "opt out" of the 3-year pay freeze which may be imposed on federal workers. And, what's to stop them from getting their annual automatic pay raise come January? It looks like 40 out of 100 Senators are millionaires, and 237 Congressmen out of 435 are millionaires. I'd like to see the millionaires give up their salaries for 3 years and possibly feel the pain like the rest of us." (On "Another Day, Another Pay Freeze Proposal")
• "I'm 100% fine with the pay freeze, now Congress needs to fall in line and make sure their pay is frozen as well. Anything else is simply unacceptable." (On "Pay and Benefits Watch: Frozen Assets")

Fair points. But I do feel compelled to note for the record that Congress has in fact already voted to freeze its pay next year -- for the second year in a row. The last time lawmakers got an increase, in 2009, their base pay went up to $174,000.

By law, members of Congress get automatic cost-of-living increases unless they vote to turn them down. Since 1990, they've taken raises 13 times and voted not to accept them on seven occasions.