The Missing Context Behind Speaker Johnson’s Staff Departures
New faces are becoming a member of Mike Johnson’s group of assistants as he navigates uneven political waters in Congress.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.)—When three prime aides to Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson confirmed final week they’re leaving his employees, outstanding within the media protection have been descriptions of their departures as indicators the Louisiana Republican was “reeling” from an “workplace exodus.”
An influential congressional e-newsletter even opened one in every of its tales with the query: “Will the final one left flip off the lights?”
What such protection missed, nevertheless, was the truth that Mr. Johnson has maintained an unusually low employees turnover charge all through his almost eight years in Congress and is thought for paying employees properly. The median wage for a Johnson staffer is properly above the Home common.
Mr. Johnson’s file contrasts with the long-established Capitol Hill norm of low wages, lengthy hours, and fixed employees turnover. Congressional aides analysis and draft laws, plan and schedule committee hearings, meet with their bosses’ constituents, deal with correspondence, and take care of journalists on a day-to-day foundation.
Knowledge compiled by Legistorm exhibits Mr. Johnson’s total turnover index at 0.18 for the interval 2017-2022, decrease than the Home common of 0.24 over the identical time span.
Legistorm, a subscription-only congressional information and paperwork evaluation service, calculates its turnover index by discovering the annualized wage charges of aides who depart a congressional workplace throughout a particular time interval. That information is then divided by the entire paid to all employees throughout the identical interval.
Consequently, in keeping with Legistorm, the departure of a chief of employees making $150,000 yearly has 5 occasions better influence on the turnover index than the lack of a employees assistant who was paid $30,000. A 0.0 index quantity means no one left throughout a specified interval, whereas a 0.5 index means half of the employees has departed.
Turnover Price
As a result of having to reconfigure his private employees and create a separate speaker employees, Mr. Johnson’s common for the present Congress is 0.4. However Mr. Johnson’s total common for all eight of his years in Congress is 0.21, nonetheless under the Home common for a similar time interval.
For comparability, Legistorm’s “Worst Bosses” index for the years 2001 via 2022 exhibits 5 Home Democrats and 5 Home Republicans constituting the highest 10; the worst-performing lawmaker had a turnover charge of 1.08.
On the compensation aspect, Mr. Johnson’s workplace median employees wage, in keeping with Legistorm’s calculations, was $64,229 in the course of the earlier Congress and $75,464 within the present Congress. The median Home employees wage for the present Congress is $73,500.
The trio contains Brittan Specht, Jason Yaworske, and Preston Hill, all of whom had agreed to assist Mr. Johnson transition as Mr. McCarthy’s successor.
Mr. Specht was a counselor for Mr. McCarthy within the speaker’s workplace and had labored for the California Republican in numerous capacities since 2017. Mr. Yaworske was a senior coverage adviser to each Mr. Johnson and Mr. McCarthy and had labored for the latter since January 2023. Mr. Hill was additionally a senior coverage adviser to each males and had labored for Mr. McCarthy since 2015.
All three males will assume positions in June with Michael Finest Methods, a Okay-Road lobbying agency. Among the many agency’s principals are former White Home Chief of Workers Reince Priebus, former Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Steve Israel, and George P. Bush, grandson of the late President George H.W. Bush and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
A fourth short-term Johnson staffer, Deputy Chief of Workers Raj Shah, additionally confirmed final week that he can be leaving quickly. Mr. Shah was Deputy White Home Press Secretary early within the tenure of former President Donald Trump. Mr. Shah left Fox Information the place he was a vice-president to assist Mr. Johnson’s transition to speaker. He has not stated the place he can be working subsequent.
Becoming a member of the speaker’s employees within the wake of the departing trio’s announcement is Dan Zeigler as coverage adviser, changing Mr. Specht. Mr. Zeigler was previously a principal of Williams and Jensen PLLC. He has additionally served as govt director of the Republican Examine Committee (RSC) when Mr. Johnson was the group’s Chairman.
Additionally becoming a member of the Speaker’s employees is Meredith Schellin as digital director. Ms. Schellin is former digital director for Home Republican Convention Chairman Elise Stefanik (D-N.Y.).