On Tuesday, the Mississippi Senate passed a bill that would dish out some raises—to themselves.
SB 2794 was passed “on morning roll call vote” and would bump salaries of lawmakers in both chambers up $6,000 in the first year of a four-year term and $4,500 a year for the other three years of the term.
Mississippi is one of 14 states with part-time legislatures, which means lawmakers devote 57 percent of a full-time job to their legislative duties. Out of those 14 states, the average salary is $18,449 with Mississippi currently standing at $23,500.
On top of the base salary, legislators receive $151 per diem each day of the session. Most members also have jobs outside of their legislative duties.
Those who voted nay were Senators Kathy Chism, Chris McDaniel, Melanie Sojourner, and Brice Wiggins.
