Your Hired Hands Want a $3,100 Pay Raise

The US House agreed to raise their salaries by $3,100 a year to $165,200 a year. Mind you, Congressmen get a yearly raise like this unless they vote against it. No vote was allowed, so the raise takes effect next year.

Purists, like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) argue that calling it a "pay raise" is wrong when it's really a COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment):

"It's not a pay raise. It's an adjustment so that they're not losing their purchasing power."

--Tom DeLay (R-TX),

quoted on 2006 Congressional Pay Raise

Congress has allowed itself a raise every year since 1998. By the way, the minimum wage has been at $5.15 since Congress last raised it in 1996 -- two years before Congress' string of four digit pay raises for itself. (AP)