Some people say they're angry that UPS workers could make $170,000 including benefits. Members of Congress make more than that for working a lot less.

Taylor Berman
Thu, August 17, 2023

Newly elected member of Congress pose for the 118th Congress member-elect class photo on the House steps on Tuesday, November 15, 2022.

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

• UPS workers could get $170,000 in combined pay and benefits in 5 years' time thanks to their new union deal.

• Some tech workers seem mad about this.

• But members of Congress make $174,000 annually, and are only required to work about 155 days a year.

Earlier this summer, the Teamsters union secured a tentative contract agreement with UPS that could result in employees for the shipping company making up to $170,000 in annual pay and benefits in five years. Such healthy annual compensation predictably generated headlines, as well as apparent backlash from workers in industries that generally are thought of as more lucrative.

As Insider reported last week, tech workers, or people claiming to be them, took to anonymous message boards like Blind to complain about the deal. One person called the deal "disappointing," said it "sucks," and argued that the engineers who created the trucks used by UPS drivers "are more important because the impact to society is higher, including providing a tool for work." Not exactly solidarity!

But perhaps these tech workers should be saving their resentment for the well-compensated government employees who, relative to UPS workers or anyone else with a normal job, barely work: members of Congress, who as of December 2022, make a minimum of $174,000 a year in salary not including very generous benefits.

According to Ballotpedia, House members spent an average of 149 days in session each year between 2001 and 2021, with senators clocking in a bit more at 164 days a year on average in the same span. (Of course some of those days are longer than others with some votes going late into the night or into the early morning.)

For comparison's sake, there are about 260 work days each year for Americans who aren't in Congress.

Outside of their legislative duties, members of Congress can and often do work more each year, doing things like meeting with constituents in their home districts. But as ABC News notes they're not required to, and they're paid for their time away from the Capitol regardless of how they spend it.

The lesson here? Tech workers looking for easier jobs that pay well should simply run for office instead of complaining anonymously on message boards.