Leg. pay raise; not so much for teachers or minimum pay

Just dropping in to point out that the legislature seems prepared to gut a proposed teacher pay raise but sees no real problem in raising legislators’ pay from $16,000 to $40,000 per year. What hasn’t been said is that with their $168 per diem for each day they are in Baton Rouge, plus mileage to and from Baton Rouge, office expenses and a staffer for their district offices, they’re already pulling in about $40,000 on average and now they’re trying to get another $24k — for a part-time job.

They justify this bump by pointing out that legislators’ pay hasn’t changed since 1980. Meanwhile, the $7.25 per hour minimum wage (about $15,000 per year, based on a full-time 40-hour week work schedule) hasn’t budged since 2009 and legislators have repeatedly fought back efforts to increase it.

I would suggest that legislators, instead of enriching themselves with a pay increase, try to survive on $7.25 an hour – just to see what the real world is like for so many people today.