Massachusetts Legislators to Receive Pay Cut

Massachusetts lawmakers will get a pay cut this year, in accordance with a state law that links legislators’ salaries to the state’s median household income.

Gov. Deval Patrick’s office announced the drop in wages last week.

Patrick said, in a Jan. 2 letter to State Treasurer Steven Grossman, that the median household income decreased 1.8 percent over the past two years as determined by the federal census American Community Survey and reports of average weekly wages.

The pay cut amounts to about $1,000 annually from legislators’ current base pay of $61,132, the Associated Press reported.

The governor himself will be impacted by the pay cut, as will the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state auditor and state senators and representatives.

Officials’ salaries also dropped in 2011, by 0.5 percent, according to the AP report.