Billionaire Elon Musk, who heads the US federal agency for job cuts, has proposed a salary increase for US elected officials and senior civil servants, BTA reports.
He believes that such an increase would have a positive effect in the fight against corruption, as, according to him, corrupt practices can cost public finances 1,000 times more, reports Agence France-Presse.
Currently, congressmen receive $174,000 a year. Their salaries are usually adjusted annually for inflation, but a freeze on these adjustments, which was decided by the congressmen themselves, has been in effect since 2009.
Many lawmakers, both Republican and Democratic, support the pay increase, arguing that election campaigns are expensive and that higher pay is the best way to attract new talent, especially from the working class, to politics.