This graph shows the median wealth of US lawmakers in Congress from 2008 to 2018, for both chambers. In 2018, the median wealth in the Senate amounted to 1.76 million U.S. dollars.

This graph shows the median wealth of US lawmakers in Congress from 2004 to 2010, for both political parties. In 2010, the median wealth of Republican Congressmen stood at 881,786 US dollars.

The annual salary received by members of the United States Congress in 2025 is 174,000 U.S. dollars. This has been the case since 2009. The Government Ethics Reform Act of 1989 provides an automatic cost of living adjustment increase in line with the

Bolded multivariate results are statistically significant.

In 2018, it was estimated that Congress members in Chile had one of the highest monthly salaries in Latin America. Each member of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies, the National Congress' lower chamber, received a gross monthly income of more than 23,000 U.S. dollars. Mexico came in second among the countries shown in this graph, with an income of over 20,600 dollars per month. The regional average stood at around 10,200 dollars.

Political lobbyists in the U.S. command wages well above the average, with the median annual salary for a lobbyist being 116.8 thousand U.S. dollars of September 2020. However, even at the lower end of the scale lobbyists earn respectable incomes, with 25 percent earning 73 thousand U.S. dollars. At the other end of the scale, the top 90 percent of lobbyist earned above 201 thousand U.S. dollars per year.

‘Political lobbying in the United States’

Political lobbying is the activity of trying to influence the opinions and actions of people in important political positions, generally elected representatives and people on regulative bodies. Often this activity is performed by professional lobbyists, who are hired owing to their existing connections to the political establishment. Since 2008 spending on lobbying in the U.S. has averaged around 3.3 billion U.S. dollars per year, with an average of around 12,000 active registered lobbyists.

‘Who engages in lobbying?’

A wide range of groups engage in political lobbying. Corporate interests are obviously well represented, with many familiar companies and industry advocacy groups filling out the 2020 list of highest spenders on political lobbying. Aside from big business, special interest groups can also spend significant amounts on lobbying – often with both sides of a public debate contributing large sums. For example, National Association of Realtors has spent over 84 million U.S. dollars in 2020 to convince the government of their cause.

In 2023, the gross federal debt in the United States amounted to around 93,500 U.S. dollars per capita. This is a moderate increase from the previous year, when the per capita national debt amounted to about 92,528 U.S. dollars. The total debt accrued by the U.S. annually can be accessed here. Federal debt of the United States The level of national debt held by the United States government has risen sharply in the years following the Great Recession. Federal debt is the amount of debt the federal government owes to creditors who hold assets in the form of debt securities. As with individuals and consumers, there is a common consensus among economists that holding debt is not necessarily problematic for government so long as the public debt is held at a sustainable level. Although there is no agreed upon ratio of debt to gross domestic product, the increasing debt held by the Federal Reserve has become a major part of the political discourse in the United States. Politics and the national debt In recent years, debate over the debt ceiling has been of concern to domestic politicians, the owners of federal debt, and global economy as a whole. The debt ceiling is a legislated maximum amount that national debt can reach intended to impose a degree of fiscal prudence on incumbent governments. However, as national debt has grown the debt ceiling has been reached, thus forcing legislative action by Congress. In both 2011 and 2013, new legislation was passed by Congress allowing the debt ceiling to be raised. The Budget Control Act of 2011 and the No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013 successively allowed the government to avoid defaulting on national debt and therefore avert a potential economic crisis.