State Representative Joel Fry floor manages a bill on raising elected officials’ salaries on April 18

Before adjourning for the year on April 20, the Iowa Senate did not take up a last-minute bill from the House that would have given state legislators and statewide elected officials a $10,000 raise, effective 2025.

Lawmakers should not wait until the closing days of the next session to address this issue. Stagnant, relatively low salaries are a real barrier to bringing more diverse perspectives and life experiences to the statehouse.

A 40 PERCENT SALARY BOOST FOR MOST LEGISLATORS

House File 2700 would increase the annual salary for House and Senate members from $25,000 (the salary in place since 2007) to $35,000 for 2025. Salaries for lawmakers in leadership roles would also increase by $10,000, to either $47,500 or $37,000, depending on the position.

While a 40 percent raise sounds generous, the proposed base salary of $35,000 is far from extravagant. Iowa’s per capita income was $37,949 in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Adjusting for inflation, a $25,000 salary from 2007 would have the purchasing power of $38,575.51 today.

House File 2700 would not change code language on per diem payments that lawmakers receive for the first 110 days of the session in odd-numbered years and 100 days in even-numbered years. Those payments totaled $19,590 for most legislators this year ($14,685 for those who live in Polk County).

Beginning in 2026, the bill would increase legislators’ salaries by a certain amount each year, equal to the average cost-of-living adjustment for state employees represented by several large labor unions.

The second part of the bill would raise the annual salaries for Iowa’s governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of agriculture, secretary of state, and state auditor by $10,000 for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2024. Those salaries were last increased in 2005 and now range from $103,000 to $130,000. Like lawmakers, statewide elected officials would receive a cost-of-living adjustment in subsequent years.

A “KEY PIECE” FOR ATTRACTING LEADERS

House Appropriations Committee chair Gary Mohr introduced the proposal and explained to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, “If we truly want to attract a quality of people to be in the Legislature, that’s cross-representative of Iowans, that’s what we want, I think we need to raise that salary.”

Republican State Representative Joel Fry was among several House members (from both parties) to call for raising legislators’ salaries in their retirement speeches this month. He described the proposal as a “very modest increase” during the April 16 subcommittee. Floor managing the bill two days later, Fry asserted the salary hike would be a “key piece” for attracting and retaining “bright leaders” to serve.

Although Iowa’s legislature is in session for only about a third of the year, many lawmakers do a substantial amount of constituent service, policy research, and committee work outside of the regular session.

The House approved the bill by 58 votes to 38, with bipartisan support and opposition. Most members facing potentially competitive House races voted no. Otherwise, there was no obvious logic to the sorting: the “yes” and “no” groups each included progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans, some longtime members and some serving their first terms. (The roll call is enclosed below.)

Oddly, Mohr voted against the bill he had introduced and fast-tracked through the Appropriations Committee. Democratic State Representative John Forbes also voted no, even though he had expressed hope during his recent retirement speech that the legislature would increase members’ salaries.

“THEY SIMPLY CAN’T AFFORD TO RUN”

Cedar Rapids Gazette columnist Todd Dorman found it hard to muster sympathy for legislators, pointing out that the governing majority has not raised Iowa’s minimum wage since 2007, put obstacles in the path of people on food assistance, and has been stingy about funding public schools. Arguably many Iowans deserve an income boost more than legislators, who can obtain health insurance through the state and receive a per diem allowance during the session and on some working days outside of session.

Such concerns prompted House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst to vote against the bill. Asked about the topic at an April 19 news conference, Konfrst acknowledged “it is hard to recruit people to run for office with this salary. But we also know that a lot of Iowans are struggling with their income.” She said raising lawmakers’ pay wasn’t a priority for House Democrats.

Iowa Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum told reporters her caucus had not discussed the issue, since the salary bill never materialized in the upper chamber. But she supported the concept.

Some prospective legislative candidates have told Senate Democrats “they simply can’t afford to run,” Jochum said. She likened the situation to the high cost of political campaigns: “It’s not just determining who wins an election anymore. It’s who even runs. What’s wrong is if you have the salaries so locked in and so low that just common, ordinary working folk cannot afford to serve.”

Jochum believes Iowa should have a “citizen legislature”—”not just for those who are retired and wealthy,” but a “diverse group of people that are representing the faces of Iowa.”

The 150 members of the Iowa legislature include 24 business professionals, sixteen business owners, and 22 farmers, according to a January 2023 analysis by the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The average age of House and Senate members is 55, the Gazette found. The sizeable contingent of legislators retired from their day jobs largely spent their careers in white-collar occupations or in agriculture, where there is more downtime from January through April.

Republican State Representative Phil Thompson, who is retiring from the legislature at age 33, told colleagues he and his wife “can’t afford to do another round of it” with a baby on the way.

Iowa would benefit from having more working-age people (with or without young children) at the table when state laws are drafted and approved.

Age and professional diversity are also important for the legislature’s future. While retired people have valuable insights and expertise to share, you cannot build a bench of leaders primarily from people nearing the end of their political careers.

If the House and Senate take up legislative salaries next year, a raise for elected officials should be part of a package to help working-class Iowans, such as increasing the minimum wage, expanding the earned income tax credit and affordable child care, and participating fully in federal food assistance programs. That may be a hard sell with Republicans who just passed an income tax cut that leaves out some 500,000 Iowans, but it could make a vote to boost lawmakers’ pay less of a political liability.

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Appendix: How Iowa House members voted on a bill to raise legislators’ salaries by $10,000 next year, with a cost-of-living adjustment for 2026 and beyond

Republicans supporting the bill (39):

• Speaker Pat Grassley
• Majority Leader Matt Windschitl
• Michael Bergan
• Brian Best
• Brooke Boden
• Jacob Bossman
• Ken Carlson
• Taylor Collins
• Dave Deyoe
• Jon Dunwell
• Dean Fisher
• Joel Fry
• Thomas Gerhold
• Austin Harris
• Helena Hayes
• Steve Holt
• Heather Hora
• Chad Ingels
• Tom Jeneary
• Craig Johnson
• Bobby Kaufmann
• Barb Kniff McCulla
• Shannon Latham
• Shannon Lundgren
• Norlin Mommsen
• Tom Moore
• Carter Nordman
• Brad Sherman
• Jeff Shipley
• David Sieck
• Brent Siegrist
• Ray Sorensen
• Luana Stoltenberg
• Henry Stone
• Mark Thompson
• Phil Thompson
• Skyler Wheeler
• Devon Wood
• Derek Wulf

Democrats supporting the bill (19):

• Ako Abdul-Samad
• Jerome Amos Jr.
• Austin Baeth
• Sean Bagniewski
• Timi Brown-Powers
• Jeff Cooling
• Ken Croken
• Ruth Ann Gaines
• Bob Kressig
• Monica Kurth
• Elinor Levin
• Mary Madison
• Brian Meyer
• Amy Nielsen
• Rick Olson
• Sharon Steckman
• Beth Wessel-Kroeschell
• Ross Wilburn
• Adam Zabner

Republicans opposing the bill (21):

• Eddie Andrews
• Jane Bloomingdale
• Steven Bradley
• Mark Cisneros
• Tom Determann
• Dan Gehlbach
• Cindy Golding
• Martin Graber
• Robert Henderson
• Megan Jones
• Brian Lohse
• Joshua Meggers
• Ann Meyer
• Gary Mohr
• Anne Osmundson
• Matt Rinker
• Mike Sexton
• Charley Thomson
• Mike Vondran
• Hans Wilz
• David Young

Democrats opposing the bill (17):

• Molly Buck
• Sue Cahill
• Tracy Ehlert
• John Forbes
• Eric Gjerde
• Chuck Isenhart
• Dave Jacoby
• Lindsay James
• Kenan Judge
• Jennifer Konfrst
• Heather Matson
• Sami Scheetz
• J.D. Scholten
• Megan Srinivas
• Art Staed
• Josh Turek
• Elizabeth Wilson

Republicans John Wills, Zach Dieken, Bill Gustoff, and Stan Gustafson were absent on April 18.