What's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Net Worth And How High Is Her Salary?

For Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, living paycheck to paycheck used to be the norm. She understands what it's like to struggle when the rent comes due. Thus, once she officially took her place in the U.S. House of Representatives, AOC shocked Capitol Hill with her promise to pay her staff no less than $52,000/year in an effort to promote and normalize the living wage. "Leadership starts with our choices," she tweeted in February 2019. "It's likely one of the highest entry-level salaries on the Hill. We pinch pennies elsewhere, but it's worth every dime to pay a living wage."

AOC added that, while congressional members are allotted funds for disbursement, GOP leaders haven't increases said budgets in years, which means many of the people who help run the country must settle for an entry-level salary around $30,000/year — well below the estimated $36,940.80 needed to sustain a single adult who lives in Washington, D.C., according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology's living wage calculator (via Yahoo! Finance).

With an estimated $1 million Members Representational Allowance left to her discretion, AOC added that interns will earn $15/hour and senior staff salaries would be capped at $80,000/year. "It is unjust for Congress to budget a living wage for ourselves, yet rely on unpaid interns [and] underpaid overworked staff just [because] Republicans want to make a statement about 'fiscal responsibility,'" she tweeted in December 2018. Now that's leadership!

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