Copyright MassLive
It’s one of the truisms of politics: Elected officials get all the glory for the big policy wins and legislative changes that shape every area of public life, from schools and social programs to taxes and transit. But they wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the legions of legislative staffers who do the hard work to make it happen. They help draft legislation and make the numbers add up. They’re the ones who help you when you’re trying to navigate the state government bureaucracy. And those big and well-staged press conferences and rallies? That’s often their handiwork, too. And according to a new survey, legislative staffers in Massachusetts are deeply unhappy about their wages and working conditions and they have more than one eye on the exits. Consider just a few of the top-line results: 1 in 6 workers say they’ve experienced workplace discrimination 1 in 13 say they’ve experienced sexual harassment, with women more than twice as likely as men to report that they’ve been sexually harassed at least once. 8 in 10 say salary is a major source of dissatisfaction. And half of all staffers say they plan to leave their jobs within two years, but 4 in 5 say they’d consider staying longer if working conditions improved. “The State House has a preventable turnover problem, which results in the loss of approximately half of its staff every two years,” according to a summary of the results. That’s less than the full, 2-year legislative cycle for each session of the Legislature, the analysis noted. The survey of 152 of the roughly 800 legislative staffers who work in both the state House and Senate was conducted from May through June of this year. Its results were shared with MassLive this week. Its release came ahead of a Beacon Hill hearing on Wednesday on a bill that would improve working conditions by establishing a new commission specifically charged with dealing with issues of harassment and sexual assault in the Legislature. It also came the day after another legislative committee took testimony on a bill that would grant legislative employees the long-sought right to form a union. At that hearing, state Sen. Jake Oliveira, D-Hampden/Hampshire/Worcester, recalled spending a short time as a State House staffer almost two decades ago before leaving that job because it was difficult to pay his bills. “I spent only a few months as a staffer because of the low salary. Just to meet the bills that I had, you know, 16, 17 years ago, was hard to do at the time,” Oliveira, of Ludlow, said, according to State House News Service. He estimated that during that time in 2008 and 2009, his salary was about $32,000 annually, the wire service reported. Legislative staffers contacted by MassLive for this story declined to comment. But one staffer who is leading the unionization effort said the legislation is a gut-check for lawmakers who say they support labor. “I would hope that legislators that consider themselves pro-union would approach this issue with real thoughtfulness and from a perspective of trying to figure out how to make collective bargaining and unionization work in the State House,” the employee, Ravi Simon, told CommonWealth Beacon. Staffers have been pressing for the right to form a union for years. But such efforts have withered in the face of opposition from the two most powerful lawmakers on Beacon Hill: House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, and Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk. A spokesperson for Spilka told MassLive that the Ashland lawmaker is sticking with a position she took when the issue came up in 2022. Namely, that a union is off the table. Still, Spilka “continues to work with her colleagues to thoroughly review all legislation that advances from committee,” the spokesperson said. The Senate updated its employee salary ranges, career ladder and benefits during that 2022 unionization push, according to State House News Service The chamber updated that compensation plan in 2024, which factored in a market study of comparable pay rates conducted for the Senate by the National Conference of State Legislatures, thw wire service reported. The Senate most recently raised staff compensation in August 2025. They told State House News Service that that the average salary of a Senate employee at that time was $92,264. A spokesperson for Mariano, who once was a legislative staffer, pointed to efforts to improve working conditions and wages. But the Quincy lawmaker stopped well short of endorsing collective bargaining rights for the people who work for him. Mariano “knows that House staff go above and beyond to serve their Representatives and their constituents,” the spokesperson said. Mariano “continues to be grateful for their hard work, and has provided raises for House staff on multiple occasions during his Speakership,” the spokesperson told MassLive Now, about those wages. Massachusetts has one of the highest costs of living in the country. It’s even worse in Boston, where most State House staffers work and call home. The median salary for a full-time House staffer is $65,550, and $84,299 for a Senate staffer, according to an analysis by CommonWealth Beacon. According to MIT’s Living Wage calculator, a single adult, with no children, would have to earn $28.88 an hour, or $60,070 a year before taxes, to live comfortably in Massachusetts. A single adult with two children, meanwhile, needs to earn $55.15 an hour, or $114,712 a year, to make a living wage in the Bay State, according to that same calculator. Wages weren’t the only concern. A lack of transit benefits in a state where driving can be a headache and parking can be a nightmare also loomed large. But it wasn’t all bad news. Two in three legislative staffers said they were satisfied with their work schedules and job duties. But job satisfaction was lower among people with disabilities and among staffers who work in the state House of Representatives, according to the survey. The same can be said of researchers and legislative aides, the survey found. The survey also made recommendations for improvements, including subsidized subway, commuter rail and parking passes, along with more training and support for career advancement and more accommodating time-off policies — especially during the first year on the job. Nearly 80% respondents said they’d consider extending their time on Beacon Hill if any of those conditions were met. Two state lawmakers, a Democrat in the state Senate, and a Republican in the state House, did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Still, at least one lawmaker appears well aware of the important role their employees play in the day-to-day functions of the Legislature. “We rely on them day in and day out to ensure that we are prepared, we are informed, we are on time and to meet our obligations as elected officials,” Rep. Rodney Elliott, D-16th Middlesex, who supports the collective bargaining push, told CommonWealth Beacon. “They’re in the district, they’re in the State House. Sometimes they have to work nights,” the Lowell lawmaker continued. “More often than not, they certainly work more than 40 hours [a week].”
