THE FIGHT TO TAKE THE HILL
CONGRESSIONAL STAFFERS SPEND LATE nights and weekends helping broker deals and write the laws that govern the U.S. Many do so on salaries so scant they qualify for the welfare benefits they help legislate. And they’re sick of putting up with it.
On a Thursday afternoon in February, 11 Democratic House staffers convened, via Zoom, to discuss their plan to unionize both chambers of Congress for the first time in history. The staffers, who represent the still aspirational Congressional Workers Union (CWU), have two goals. The first is to get both the House and Senate to pass resolutions granting them legal protections to unionize. The second is to leverage the power unionization would provide to improve their lot. “It’s a privilege to work here,” says one staffer, “but it shouldn’t be a privilege to earn a living wage here.”
A recent analysis of 2020 data by Issue One, a nonprofit political-reform group, showed that 13% of Washington-based Congress staffers—roughly 1,200 people—earn less than
