She says that members of Congress that make $174,000 a year along with those earning minimum wage deserve a raise.
House Democrats abruptly halted AOC’s efforts to give themselves a pay raise.Repotedly vulnerable swing-state Democrats are worried how a $4,500 a year pay hike would look if it didn't also have Republican support.
Ocasio-Cortez says the $4,500 pay hike is “not even like a raise." She says they deserve the money, “this is why there's so much pressure to turn to lobbying firms and to cash in on member service after people leave, because precisely of this issue."
She adds “it may be politically convenient, and it may make you look good in the short term for saying, 'Oh we're not voting for pay increases,' but we should be fighting for pay increases for every American worker," she said. "We should be fighting for a $15 minimum wage pegged to inflation so that everybody in the United States with a salary with a wage gets a cost of living increase. Members of Congress, retail workers, everybody should get cost of living increases to accommodate for the changes in our economy. And then when we don't do that, it only increases the pressure on members to exploit loopholes like insider-trading loopholes, to make it on the back end."