HARRISBURG – PennLive is reporting… State lawmakers are getting a nice holiday bonus. Base salaries for lawmakers will soon top $106,000 a year, establishing Pennsylvania again as the third highest paid state legislature in the nation.
The 3.5% pay raise starting Dec. 1, pushes yearly salaries to $106,422 — or $8.869 a month — up from the $102,844 received last December when lawmakers’ pay cracked into six figures for the first time. Only state lawmakers in California and New York earn a higher base pay.
Rank-and-file members will now net $8,869 a month. Lawmakers who hold elected leadership posts will earn more, with the highest salaries going to the presiding officers – Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward and House Speaker Joanna McClinton – who will receive $166,132.
The new salary for the four floor leaders – Sens. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana County, and Jay Costa, D-Allegheny County, and Rep. Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery County, and Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster County – is $154,192. Other caucus leaders’ pay will range from $121,351 to $142,676.
