US lawmakers did not seek 40% pay hike for themselves
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"There are two provisions buried in the CR (continuing resolution) that Congress is trying to slip by (including a) pay increase for members of Congress from $174,000 to $243,000 per year," said a December 18. 2024 X post with tens of thousands of engagements.
The claim was amplified by X owner and President-elect Donald Trump's key ally Elon Musk, who wrote: "How can this be called a 'continuing resolution' if it includes a 40% pay increase for Congress?" as well as the quasi-official Department of Government Efficiency.
Similar claims circulated on Facebook, Threads and Instagram.
The posts ricocheted across platforms as lawmakers scrambled to keep the government operating ahead of a December 21 deadline.
One version of measure, rejected on December 19, included a more modest pay increase of 3.8 percent -- which would have been the first since 2009. Some members objected to the hike.
According to the Congressional Research Service, that increase of $6,600 annually would have been the maximum allowable under the law (archived here).
"The maximum potential January 2025 adjustment is 3.8%, which would result in a salary of $180,600," the report said.
The final bill approved on December 20 stripped out the pay increase among other provisions, leaving lawmakers' salaries unchanged (archived here and here).
The false posts used the figure of $243,00, a salary that would have resulted if lawmakers accepted all cost of living adjustments since 1992, the first year where automatic increases were prescribed under the Ethics Reform Act of 1989, the report noted.
Lawmakers repeatedly passed measures to refuse compensation increases and other laws now take precedence including a one approved in March 2024 that bars cost of living adjustments for legislators, a provision reaffirmed in a continuing funding act in September 2024.
The two measures effectively reversed the automatic increase by mandating that "no adjustment shall be made under section 601(a) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 4501) (relating to cost of living adjustments for Members of Congress)" during the covered periods.
AFP has fact-checked other claims about US politics here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
