A 40 Hour Work Week... For Congress.

Most people think Congress sucks. And it kind of does. They spend more time raising money for the next campaign and having dueling press conferences than they do in Washington DC doing things to make the country better. No wonder herpes has a higher rating in most polls.

An average Senator and Representative make $174,000 a year.

But they only work a limited number of days. The Senate had 132 working days this year. The House had 147 days. Your average working Joe has a potential of about 261 minus holidays, so maybe 256. That's without taking any vacation time.

So an 8 hour day of work in 256 days is 2048 hours.
The Senate had 1056 hours if you figure an 8 hour day.
The House had 1176 hours with an 8 hour day.
So basically Congress is getting paid a huge salary to work half the days most everyone else in the USA does. 

But then there's the salary. $174,000.
Again figuring an 8 hour day, the Senate is paying $164.77 an hour.
The House is paying $147.96 an hour.
If they kept the same salary but worked 256 days, the hourly rate is $84.96. Still a huge amount for an hours work.
If that $84.96 were the base line for their hourly rate, and Congress got paid by the hour, the days and hours they worked this year would earn them much less. $99912.96 in the Senate and $89,717.76 in the House.

Basically make the Congress work for an hourly wage with the promise of making $174,000 if they work a 40 hour week. I bet they would work on weekends for the time and a half, and they might even unionize to get better conditions.If they worked that many hours, some things might get done. Laws might get passed. Roads, education, immigration, healthcare, all the things stalled in the Congress might improve.

Not gonna happen, but some interesting, albeit depressing, math.