Potomac Flacks

New Data on 2006 Average Salaries for Hill Press Secretaries

As a sidebar to a piece on congressional job-seekers, yesterday's Wash Post took a look at the newly-released congressional staff salary reports from the Congressional Management Foundation.  Here's what the report found about the average salaries of House and Senate press staffers:

Average Senate Flack Salaries - 2006
Communications Director: $94,620
Press Secretary: $63,000
Deputy Press Secretary: $36,476

Average House Flack Salaries - 2006
Press Secretary/Comm Director: $55,000

Hill Staffers Provided New Diversion in Form of Updated Salary Data

The friendly (or is it Friedly?) folks over at LegiStorm -- the online database of congressional staff salaries that crashed soon after launching in September -- tell us that they've just updated their site with the latest House of Representatives salary data, from the second quarter of 2006.

There are 435+ House offices, so we're disinclined to put together a spreadsheet like we did with the Senate press secretary salaries.  But as a public service, we can steer you directly to salary info for new House leaders Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, James Clyburn, Rahm Emanuel, John Boehner, Roy Blunt, Eric Cantor, and Adam Putnam.  Plus all the House committee spokesfolks.

The LegiStorm folks also announced planned improvements for the coming months, including more data from past years, new ways to browse and search data, and new additions to its staff to help get data posted more quickly.

Highest-Paid Campaign Bloggers: Clinton, Kennedy, Santorum

As a follow-up to Beltway Blogroll's post last week about paid in-house bloggers and new media advisors on the campaign trail this cycle, Bill Beutler of Blog P.I. took the time to compile a chart of pro-rated salaries for the bloggers mentioned in the original BB piece.  Beutler breaks down the data several different ways, but here's the top 5 in-house campaign bloggers in terms of salary (reflects Beutler's update):

Blogger/Adviser	Payment/Expenditure	Candidate	Campaign
Peter Daou	$60,000 (by way of FOH/HILLPAC)	Sen. Hillary Clinton	NY SEN incumbent
Michael Brodkorb	$55,200	Rep. Mark Kennedy	MN SEN open
Mindy Finn	$52,800	Sen. Rick Santorum	PA SEN incumbent
Luke Bernstein	$51,600	Sen. Rick Santorum	PA SEN incumbent
Laura Packard	$44,400	Sen. Debbie Stabenow	MI SEN incumbent

Snow Takes 90% Pay Cut for WH Gig

Tony Snow may earn $165,200 as WH press secretary, but that constitutes a whopping 90 percent pay cut, National Journal reports today.

The feisty media manipulator reported...that he pocketed almost $1.75 million as a Fox News anchor and syndicated talk-radio personality in the year before signing up with Bush this spring -- not to mention $161,000 in itemized speaking fees.

He delivered 25 speeches from January 2005 right up until the week before he started as press secretary; each paid more than $5,000, including four gigs compensated at $20,000 a pop. Snow reported stock and investment assets and income worth between $691,539 and $2.16 million, according to the broad ranges used by the Ethics Office.

White House Press Staff Salaries

After the runaway success of our spreadsheet of Senate Press Secretary salaries, we got to thinking that Potomac Flacks readers might be interested in a look at salaries in the White House communications and press operation.  After all, what D.C. flack doesn't harbor secret hopes of someday speaking from that famous podium and following in the steps of Tony Snow, Marlin Fitzwater, Joe Lockhart and Mike McCurry?

These salary figures are courtesy of National Journal, and were released in July 2006, so they're a bit dated (for example, Nicole Wallace has since departed the Comm Director job).  And I'll repeat what I've said before: the White House is a prestigious gig, but most of these people are criminally underpaid given how hard they work.

Snow, Tony	Assistant to the President and Press Secretary	$165,200
Wallace, Nicolle	Assistant to the President for Communications	$165,200
Martin, Catherine J.	Deputy Asstistant to the President and Deputy Director of Communications for Policy and Planning	$137,000
Perino, Dana M.	Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary	$137,000
Sforza, Scott N.	Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Communication for Production	$137,000
Mamo, Jean S.	Special Assistant to the President and Director of Media Affairs	$122,000
Lisaius, Kenneth A.	Special Assistant to President and Deputy Press Secretary	$105,000

Fun with LegiStorm: Senate Press Secretary Salaries

The new LegiStorm database of congressional staff salaries is back up and running, and I just spent some time perusing it.  Washington Wire reports that "the site is the brainchild of D.C.-based, LegiStorm LLC., founded by Jock Friedly, a former reporter for The Hill newspaper."

As a public service to Potomac Flacks readers, I've used the site to put together a spreadsheet of salaries for Senate personal office press staff - comm directors, press secretaries, deputy press secretaries, etc.  I didn't have time to do leadership offices or committee staffers, but you can check those out on the site.

Before I get any angry emails, let me caveat this posting by endorsing completely what the folks over at LegiStorm have to say:

A few aides are well paid by any measure. Many others make an embarrassing sum, especially in an expensive city such as Washington, DC at jobs that can have a ferocious intensity to them. While Congress is in session, Congressional aides often work well into the night, sometimes into the early morning, to craft legislation or to broker deals with the administration.

Here, here.  The vast majority of Hill staffers are hard working, talented, and criminally underpaid, and the fact that Hill salaries don't keep pace with the private sector contributes to a lot of good people leaving government service.

Okay, off the soapbox.
Download the spreadsheet.

Notes: Spreadsheet is based on period from 10/01/05 - 3/31/06.  Staffers who did not serve the complete period were not included.  The salary estimate column is calculated by multiplying the pay period times two.