South Carolina Senators Vote Themselves Massive Pay Raise

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It’s a mystery to many why candidates raise and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to occupy offices which pay them a pittance annually. The math doesn’t math.

Being elected to the South Carolina General Assembly is – on the surface, anyway – no financial windfall.

Of course, the reality is state lawmakers – particularly attorneys – profit handsomely from the influence they wield (in ways which rarely show up on statements of economic interest or campaign finance disclosures). Business referrals, client retainers, consulting kickbacks, contracts to entities which retain them for “services” – it is an incestuous web in which money is eventually routed back into the pockets of those who vote the way they are told.

Or who get others to vote the way they are told…

Officially, S.C. senators and representatives are paid $10,400 annually – plus $1,000 a month in “in-district” allowance – for a total compensation of $22,400. Depending on where they live in the state, they also receive anywhere between $12,000 and $16,000 on top of that to cover “expenses.” There’s also taxpayer-funded political mail they receive… and, of course, generous taxpayer-funded benefits.

***

Not counting benefits, that’s between $34,400 and $38,400 annually – for a job which requires them to be in Columbia three days a week, seventeen weeks a year. Or 51 out of 365 days a year.

What are most of them doing during the other 314 days?

Capitalizing on their influence, of course…

This week, a coalition of “Republican” and Democrat senators joined forces to dramatically raise lawmakers’ pay – jacking the “in-district” portion of their expenses by $1,500 per month – a 150% increase. According to a budget amendment sponsored by state senators Shane Martin, Matt Leber and Darrell Jackson, this $18,000 annual pay hike would take effect in the upcoming 2025-2026 spending plan.

That would mean lawmakers would now be paid between $52,400 and $56,400 for their “service” – or more than $1,000 per day, not counting benefits.

The vote to approve this raise was 24–15… with more than a dozen “Republicans” joining Democrats in voting themselves additional largesse out of the public treasury.

***

Twenty-four South Carolina senators – including more than a dozen "Republicans" – just voted to give themselves a 150% pay raise. Unbelievable. So much for a conservative @SCSenateGOP supermajority. Truth is, the corrupt uniparty is alive and well in the Columbia swamp… pic.twitter.com/fiKiIN93cs

— FITSNews (@fitsnews) April 23, 2025

***

While conservative activists rightfully raged against this pay hike, several insiders implored us to be “more thoughtful” in our assessment.

“You should hit the real issue,” one lobbyist principal told FITSNews. “Actual higher pay might attract more competent people… but match it with stricter ethics laws about who they can and cannot have business relationships with.”

Actually, I hit on that issue eight years ago… proposing an inflation-adjusted $80,000 annual salary for lawmakers, one which would have been accompanied by “the most draconian anti-corruption measures South Carolina state government has ever seen.”

Basically, lawmakers would have received a larger base salary – but their ability to profit from their positions would have been completely neutered.

“Our current structure is a breeding ground for corruption,” I wrote in that column. “Radical change of that structure is required.”

Sadly, lawmakers have shown zero interest in reforming their corrupt ways… meaning there is no universe in which this self-serving pay raise should be approved. Absent long-overdue ethics reform, lawmakers should not expect us to shell out another dime to subsidize their “service.”

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

***

WANNA SOUND OFF?

Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.