Congress

How To Make $174K Working Only 111 Days

U.S. legislators are set to work less than a third of the year. It doesn't seem like much, but it's not much lower than the recent average.

How To Make $174K Working Only 111 Days
Getty Images / Mark Wilson
SMS

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy released his chamber's legislative calendar for 2016, and it's a year any working American would be extremely jealous of. (Video via Office of John Boehner)

The House plans to be in session for 111 days next year. That's an average of less than 10 days of work a month.

Now, granted, representatives do work a lot outside of their scheduled legislative days because of meetings, constituency work and other commitments.

But the official 111 days are a lot different than the 251 working days for most Americans in 2016.

In 2015, the House had 133 days on its schedule, although it did have to work a little extra to avoid a government shutdown this year. (Video via Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy)

According to records from the Library of Congress, between 2001 and 2013, Congress has averaged 137 legislative days per year. The highest number of days was in 2011 with 175, and the lowest was 101 in 2006.

So 111 isn't unprecedented. But with a starting salary of $174,000, this schedule means representatives will be making about $1,568 a day.

This video includes images from Getty Images and Dafne Cholet / CC BY 2.0 and music from Chris Zabriskie / CC BY 4.0.