Oregon Democratic legislators propose a raise for lawmakers to encourage more diverse candidates

Oregon lawmakers are looking at giving themselves a raise, a proposal that supporters say would help boost diversity so the Legislature would better reflect the communities it represents.

On Wednesday evening, a committee focused on “modernizing the people’s Legislature” will hold a public hearing on a proposal that could raise legislators’ annual salaries from $32,800 to roughly $55,000. The actual amount would be tied to a calculation of average wages in Oregon under House Bill 3144.

Serving in the Legislature is a part-time job, with sessions that run about five months in odd-numbered years and 35-day sessions in even-numbered ones. Lawmakers hold periodic interim committee meetings outside of sessions.

In practice, “legislators are very active outside of official legislative sessions working with constituents, serving on task forces, and doing the research and collaborative work that is needed for good bills,” wrote Rep. Zach Hudson, D-Troutdale, a freshman lawmaker and a sponsor of House Bill 3144. Last year, Oregon held three special sessions to pass police accountability and reform laws, approve COVID and wildfire relief funding and adjust the budget in anticipation of a shortfall.

“The result is that working people are often excluded from the Legislature not because of any rules, but because they can’t afford to participate,” Hudson, a public school teacher, wrote in an email Tuesday. “The legislature is therefore weighted toward those who are retired, whose income comes from business or investments, or who are supported in some other way. HB 3144 would allow Oregonians from more diverse backgrounds to represent their communities without hurting their career development or suffering financial hardship.”

Hudson said the idea has support from the Legislature’s Black, Indigenous and People of Color caucus. It originated with Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a Eugene Democrat and part-time prosecutor, in 2019, then was taken up by former Rep. Akasha Lawrence Spence, D-Portland, a small business owner who was appointed to serve one year in the House. Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, a retired public relations consultant, also supported raising lawmakers’ pay in 2019 and cited the need to encourage more diverse candidates to run for the Legislature.

This year, Rep. Khanh Pham, an environmental justice organizer and freshman Democratic lawmaker from Portland, also signed onto House Bill 3144, which is up for a hearing at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“Legislator pay is about lowering barriers that exclude who can serve, and therefore who can be a voice for Oregonians and their many needs, their many unique experiences,” Pham wrote in an email Tuesday. “Our current pay structure is inaccessible for many people … Factor in the cyclical nature of our job, when many legislators take time away from their jobs to be in Salem, it makes it very hard to find employment situations that can accommodate such a unique seasonal work schedule. That fundamentally skews the pool of people who think they can do this job.”

In addition to their salaries, lawmakers are also given $151 per diem for every day they are in session, which can add up to more than $24,000 in odd-numbered years. Most other states similarly award per diems. Oregon lawmakers also are given public pensions in the way of compensation and can spend campaign contributions, which currently are not limited unlike in most states, on personal expenses including cell phones and other technology, out-of-state and international travel and meals during session that the per diem is supposed to cover.

Two other bills have so far been introduced that would also raise lawmakers’ pay, or require a study of whether it would make sense to do so: Senate Bill 830 and House Bill 3342. Both are sponsored only by Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both chambers. Neither has yet been scheduled for a public hearing.

House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, a management consultant and former legislative aide, suggested in a statement Tuesday that she would not support raising legislator pay. “Is now the right time to be raising lawmakers’ salaries while more than 132,000 Oregonians are currently unemployed?” Drazan wrote.

Based on salary alone, Oregon lawmakers’ pay is currently roughly in the middle of legislatures nationwide. In a 2020 survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures, Oregon had the 22nd highest annual legislator salary among the 42 states that pay annual salaries.

House Bill 3144 would move the state up to ninth, assuming no changes in other state legislatures’ salaries.

At the same time, lawmakers’ pay is far lower than that of many local elected officials in the state. For example, Multnomah County Commissioners earn $117,000 a year and Portland city commissioners earn $125,700. They work full-time year-round and are prohibited from doing other paid work.

Hudson said it’s important to him that House Bill 3144 would tie legislators’ pay to how Oregon workers are doing. “I love the idea of basing our own pay on the Oregon mean wage because our own fortunes will be tied to those of all Oregonians,” Hudson wrote. “We all hope that Oregon’s wages will continue to rise, but if they stagnate or fall, ours will too.”