Pay, Benefits, and Pensions
What members earn, how their benefits work, and pension rules.
As of 2025, rank-and-file members of Congress earn $174,000 per year. Leadership earns more: the Speaker of the House is paid $223,500, and the majority and minority leaders in both chambers earn $193,400. What's notable is what hasn't happened — congressional pay has been frozen at $174,000 since 2009. Members have repeatedly declined or blocked the automatic cost-of-living adjustments they're otherwise entitled to, because voting yourself a raise is politically radioactive.
There's a constitutional wrinkle behind that awkwardness. The 27th Amendment — proposed in 1789 but not ratified until 1992 — bars any change in congressional pay from taking effect until after the next House election. So members can never give themselves an immediate raise; any increase only reaches the Congress that comes after. Combined with the political cost, that's why the salary has stagnated for over 15 years even as the cost of maintaining two residences (one in an expensive Washington, D.C. market) has climbed.
Health insurance. Members do not get a special government health plan. Under a provision of the Affordable Care Act that they applied to themselves, members and their designated staff must buy coverage through the ACA's small-business exchange (the DC Health Link marketplace) rather than the standard Federal Employees Health Benefits Program available to other federal workers. They pay premiums like anyone else, with the government contributing an employer share comparable to what other federal employers contribute.
Retirement. Members participate in Social Security (mandatory for them since 1984) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), which has three legs: a defined-benefit pension, Social Security, and the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) — the federal equivalent of a 401(k) with government matching. Eligibility for the pension depends on age and years of service: generally a member needs at least five years of service to qualify, can collect at 62 with five years, and can collect earlier (as young as 50) with longer service. The pension is calculated from a formula based on years of service and the average of the member's highest-earning years — it is more generous than most private plans but, contrary to a popular myth, members do not receive their full salary for life. The average pension for retired members runs in the rough range of $40,000–$80,000 a year depending on tenure and which retirement system they fall under, with long-serving members at the higher end.
Other perks. Members receive group life insurance, a tax deduction of up to $3,000 a year for living expenses while away from their home state, access to on-site facilities in the Capitol complex (a members' gym, a medical office staffed by the Office of the Attending Physician, and other services), and reserved parking at Capitol Hill and at Washington-area airports. These benefits are real but modest in dollar terms next to the salary and pension.
How to think about it. By the standards of the responsibility involved — writing the federal budget, overseeing trillions in spending — $174,000 is not a large salary, and the frozen pay arguably pushes some qualified people away from public service or toward wealthier candidates who don't need the job. At the same time, the benefits are better than most Americans receive, and the pension myths that circulate online tend to overstate them. All of these figures come from public law and federal personnel rules, so they can be checked rather than guessed at — which is the point of laying them out plainly here.