By Bob Katzen
The base salary for the state’s 160 state representatives rose from $73,655 for the 2023-2024 session to $82,044 for the 2025-2026 session. That’s an 11.39 percent hike which means an additional $8,389 per representative. The estimated price tag for the hikes is $1,342,240.
Gov. Maura Healey announced these hikes in January. Under state law, Legislative salaries are up for adjustment in January every two years, either up or down, under a 1998 constitutional amendment approved by a better than two-to-one margin by voters. It requires that every two years the salaries of the governor, the other five constitutional statewide officers and the state’s 160 representatives be increased or decreased based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) that measures the quarterly change in salaries and wages.
It also requires that the same formula be used every two years to increase or decrease the stipends that 108 representatives receive for their service in Democratic or Republican leadership positions, as committee chairs or vice chairs and as the ranking Republican on some committees.
Representatives’ base salaries were $46,410 when the voters approved the automatic pay adjustments in 1998. Since that time, the salaries have been increased every two years except for a $306 pay cut for the 2011-2012 session; an $1,100 pay cut for the 2013-2014 session; and a salary freeze for the 2015-2016 legislative session.
The new $82,044 salary means that the base House salary has been raised $35,634 or 76.7 percent, since the mandated salary adjustment became part of the state constitution in 1998.
$22,430.96 OR $29,907.95 FOR GENERAL EXPENSES – Each representative also receives an annual general expense pay allowance of $22,430.96 for members who live within a 50-mile radius of the Statehouse and $29,907.95 for those who are located outside of that radius.
This separate, flat rate expense allowance is taxable as income. It is designed to pay for some of the costs of representatives’ district offices and other expenses including contributions to local civic groups and the printing and mailing of newsletters. Representatives are not required to submit an accounting of how they spend the money, but they are allowed to deduct any expenses, permitted under federal law, from their gross income on their federal and state tax return.