House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday she has set a $45,000 annual minimum wage for members to pay their staffers. 

The move comes amid a growing chorus of complaints about the working conditions of aides on Capitol Hill. 

In a “Dear Colleague” letter, Pelosi told House members the deadline to implement the new minimum wage is Sept. 1. She said she has the statutory authority to order the change.

“With a competitive minimum salary, the House will better be able to retain and recruit excellent, diverse talent,” Pelosi wrote. “Doing so will open the doors to public service for those who may not have been able to afford to do so in the past. This is also an issue of fairness, as many of the youngest staffers working the longest hours often earn the lowest salaries.”

The speaker said a recent 21% boost in the allowances paid to members’ offices “will more than cover this pay adjustment.”

Previously, there was no minimum wage. Lawmakers each have different hiring practices, and starting pay varies.

A report last year by Issue One, a nonpartisan political reform group, found that one in eight congressional staffers were paid a living wage in 2020. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimated a living wage for an adult with no children in Washington, D.C., was $42,610. 

The median salary for staff assistants — the most common entry-level position on Capitol Hill — was $38,730, while junior-level positions earned a median of $43,860, according to LegiStorm, a Congress-focused research organization. 

A survey conducted last year by the House Office of Diversity & Inclusion found that just 34% of staffers working for House members were satisfied with their financial compensation.

The Instagram account Dear White Staffers, which shares anonymous stories from staffers about low pay, hostile work environments, and racial and gender discrimination, celebrated Pelosi’s announcement Friday, posting: “WE DID THIS! THE WORKERS MADE THIS HAPPEN!!!!!!!”

Daniel Schuman, policy director for Demand Progress, a nongovernmental organization that has pushed for congressional staff to be paid more and allowed to unionize, said in a statement, “Today is a proud moment in congressional history and portends a significant advance in the working conditions for congressional staff.”

Pelosi also announced Friday the House will vote next week on a resolution that would recognize House staffers' right to join a union if they choose. 

“Congressional staffers deserve the same fundamental rights and protections as workers all across the country, including the right to bargain collectively,” the speaker wrote in her letter.