Office Drones, Don't Try This at Work

Where is a pay raise not a salary increase? In Pennsylvania, where last month the State Legislature voted to give itself more money. This week the checks started rolling in, and voters are fuming that lawmakers and Governor Ed Rendell did an end-run around the state constitution.

In typical fashion, lawmakers tried to defuse potential criticism by awarding pay boosts to judges and cabinet members too. Lawmakers who voted for the pay hike could then say they weren't doing it for themselves but for hardworking, full-time jurists and officials. (Yeah, right.) But that still left the problem of a state constitution that forbids lawmakers from increasing their salaries during the same term in which they voted for the pay hike. The solution? They awarded themselves the pay raise through their expense accounts. In essence, expense accounts will be credited with the salary increase, but recipients won't have to produce receipts to claim the money. The practice is called "unvouchered expenses." You'd think it was a mob scam if it wasn't signed by the governor.

Most lawmakers -- a part-time job in Pennsylvania-- will make an extra 16%, bringing their salaries to $81,000. Members who hold leadership positions will get a 34% increase, topping out at $145,000. Lawmakers don't have to take the money, and a third say they won't. Pennsylvania's pay hike puts its legislator salaries in second place among the states, behind California's full-timers.

An activist is suing to stop the checks, but he may have a tough fight ahead. In 1986, the state Supreme Court ruled that unvouchered expenses aren't prohibited pay increases. And besides, what judge is going to overturn a law that just raised his own pay?