Congress is required by Article I, Section 6, of the Constitution to determine its own pay. Prior to 1969, Congress did so by enacting stand-alone legislation. From 1789 through 1968, Congress raised its pay 22 times using this procedure. Congressional salaries initially were 1,500.By1968,theyhadrisento30,000. Stand-alone legislation may still be used to raise Member pay, as it was most recently in 1982, 1983, 1989, and 1991, but two other methods — including an automatic annual adjustment procedure and a commission process — are now also available.
Under the annual adjustment procedure, Members were scheduled to receive a 2.7% increase in January 2008. The increase was revised to 2.5%, resulting in a salary in 2008 of 169,300,tomatchthepercentincreaseinthebasepayofGeneralSchedule(GS)employees.Bylaw,MembersmaynotreceiveanincreasegreaterthantheincreaseinthebasepayofGSemployees.CongressvotedtodenythescheduledJanuary2007adjustment.Memberslastreceivedapayincrease(1.9165,200
