everyday living expenses, and you have hill staffers, both democratic and republican, who are saying that now is really a time to make a change. if it s going to happen at all, the sort of moment and the zeitgeist right now would suggest that now is the time to do this and push forward. so you re talking about the financial component, but what about the work-life balance here? i mean, what kind of duties do these congressional aides have every day? how long are their hours? they re long. i mean, it s a 12 to 14-hour day. it really depends on the boss and when i say boss, it depends on the member that they serve, and it depends on where that member lives, what district they represent. imagine if you re somebody who represents the west coast, then that obviously changes your hours here on the east coast. but and it also it s highly dependent on the whims of a member. if he or she is very active in the media and needs someone to write speeches or needs someone
why now there s this big push, coming at a time when workers across the board are pushing for better pay and better working conditions. the same thing is happening on the hill. right now, there is no mechanism for hill staffers to collectively bargain, and so it s a big deal to have this now support from both house speaker nancy pelosi and on the senate side from leader schumer. it would basically call for both chambers to pass a resolution that would then allow hill staffers to organize, but these hill staffers, they might appear in nicely pressed suits, they might have these big jobs where they have a hand in writing legislation, but their bank accounts tell a vastly different story. the median pay is $59,000 and for starting staffers, it can be as little as $20,000 or $30,000 a year. and this is in washington, d.c., where the average, you know, rent for a one-bedroom apartment is like $2,500. and so there have been surveys and polls taken where people have said, yes, i have had to t
chief washington correspondent for pbs news hour and my good buddy. some of the accusations posted on the account, according to the washington post, one person said i m waiting to get a better offer and i m out. this work is not sustainable, and myself for minimal successes. wow. as a former nbc news congressional correspondent, were you aware that staffers felt this way? i was. look, this is a decades-long a generations-long problem, and for hill staffers, who might have legitimate grievances, alex, there s really nowhere to turn. there is no congressional hr office. every office operates as its own little feifdom so if a boss, a member of congress is being verbally harassing a junior staffer, there s really nowhere for that staffer to turn. he or she could talk to the chief of staff or maybe have a conversation with that member, him or herself, but that s the extent of it. and so that s one of the reasons
tan, black and white coalition governments in the south was undone by sheer autocrat violence. i ll bring you back for the next block because next, progressives introduce a bill condemning lauren boebert for her stupid and dangerous anti muslim comments while hundreds of hill staffers demand action to protect people from her. plus, in florida ron desantis continues to pretend that covid just isn t real. and college professors say they felt pressure, get this, to actually destroy covid data. also, kevin strickland says he remembers every single second of the 43 years that he spent behind bars for a crime he did not commit. he joins me live tonight and i m going to ask him about being robbed of so much precious time. the reidout continues after this. blatche
their fear for confused and didn t speak up for good and now are doing stupid online trolling games that i think rightly make people feel uncomfortable to be around them. and jam eesh this is probably part of a longer conversation, but it s going to be whack a mole until we get back to a point in this country where it is not appealing to have a jerk, a nut, or a racist represent you in congress. i mean, the problem is that these people are electable in today s gop. that s right. and when you think about it, i m not sure what that time period will be where people don t want to sort of elect people who are have problematic views when you think about the fact that former president trump continues to be out will and playing a role in the gop. i want to underscore apart from what happened on january 6th which is traumatic eyesing and scaring and terrifying these are hill staffers who working with congress people who are getting