STAFF NEWS: Turnover Rate For House Aides Hit 20-Year High in 2021
Data compiled by Legistorm shows the highest single-year turnover rate among House staffers since the company began compiling information in 2021, according to Ketura Hetrick.
“House turnover has crept upward since about 2009, but the pandemic and Capitol insurrection pushed far more staffers than usual to leave their jobs in 2021 – 55 percent more than in the preceding year. Last year’s rates mark the House’s highest turnover since at least 2001, the first full year of LegiStorm’s salary data,” according to Hetrick.
“House Democrats were overall poorer at retaining staff and lost workers at a 24 percent higher rate than Republicans. Democratic staffers have been at the forefront of a recent push for staffer unionization,” she said.
Despite the Democrats having a harder time keeping staff, the top two House members on turnover were both Republicans, with now-former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) in first place and Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ill.) in second place.
Nunes’ turnover rate was five times the House average, while Spartz was 3.5 times the House average. Nunes resigned from the House to head up a new social media firm associated with former President Donald Trump. Spartz has been a regular figure on news shows in recent weeks because she was born in Ukraine.
“Reps. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Pat Fallon (R-Texas), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) rounded out the rest of the ten worst,” Hetrick reported.
“LegiStorm’s staff turnover index is salary-weighted, meaning that the departure of a higher-paid staffer, such as a chief of staff, will count proportionately more than that of a staff assistant or other lower-paid staffer. LegiStorm considers only full-time, non-temporary staff and excludes all interns and fellows,” according to Hetrick.
Legistorm is a subscription-only data service that provides the most comprehensive publicly available compilation of information and data about Congress, present and former members of Congress, and present and former congressional staff aides. HillFaith has been a subscriber since its founding.