Most U.S. Senators have between 30 and 40 personal staffers, with the smallest offices running under 20 and the largest topping 60. How many staffers a Senator has depends mainly on their state’s population, which drives the office budget, and on how the Senator chooses to split people between Washington, D.C., and offices back home. As of 2022, the 100 Senate offices employed 4,162 personal staff in total.1
The Budget That Sets the Ceiling
Every Senator draws from a single account called the Senators’ Official Personnel and Office Expense Account, or SOPOEA. It pays for salaries, rent, travel, mail, and equipment out of one pot. For fiscal year 2026, the average SOPOEA allowance is roughly $4,664,423, but individual allocations vary significantly based on state.
SOPOEA breaks into three parts:
- An administrative and clerical assistance allowance, which is the salary budget and scales with state population across 25 categories. A Senator from a state under 5 million residents has a staff compensation cap of about $1.52 million per year. A Senator from a state of 28 million or more can spend up to roughly $2.62 million on staff pay.
- A legislative assistance allowance, which funds staff who support committee work. This one is identical for every Senator: $677,100 for fiscal year 2026.
- An official office expense allowance, which covers non-salary costs like office space, travel, telecommunications, and franked mail. It varies with the distance between Washington and the home state and with state population.
Within those limits, the Senator decides how many people to hire and what to pay them. Federal law sets a salary floor of $3,293 per year and caps any individual staffer at the Level II Executive Schedule rate, which works out to about $225,700. Everything else is the Senator’s call.
Washington vs. Home-State Offices
Personal staff split between the Capitol Hill office and offices in the home state. The D.C. team drafts bills, prepares for hearings, analyzes policy, and handles national press. State offices focus on constituent services, local outreach, and helping people work through federal agencies.
The balance has shifted. In 1988, about 72% of personal staff worked in Washington. By 2022, that share was closer to 60%, as Senators moved more resources closer to constituents. Most Senators keep at least two or three state offices open year-round, and those from geographically large or heavily populated states often run more.
The Main Roles Inside a Senate Office
Senators have wide latitude to build whatever positions they need, but most offices share a common structure. Median pay figures come from fiscal year 2024.
- The chief of staff runs the office, manages all staff, and serves as the Senator’s top strategic advisor. Median pay is about $219,928.
- The deputy chief of staff fills in for the chief and often oversees either the legislative or the operations side. Median pay is about $183,264.
- The legislative director manages the policy team, sets priorities, and coordinates the Senator’s positions across issues. Median pay is roughly $167,164.
- Legislative assistants each cover a portfolio of issues, tracking bills, drafting amendments, and briefing the Senator before votes and hearings. Median pay is about $89,860.
- The communications director handles media strategy, press releases, speeches, and public messaging. Median pay is approximately $158,231.
- The state director oversees all home-state offices and manages constituent outreach and relationships with state and local officials. Median pay is about $171,476.
- Staff assistants answer phones, greet visitors, sort mail, and handle administrative work. Median pay is roughly $55,891.
Other common positions include schedulers who manage the Senator’s calendar and travel, constituent services representatives who help individuals navigate agencies like the VA or the Social Security Administration, and systems administrators who maintain office technology and cybersecurity.
Committee Staff Are a Separate Pool
Senators who chair or serve as ranking members on committees also get access to committee employees, funded through the committee’s own budget rather than SOPOEA. These staffers work exclusively on committee business: organizing hearings, investigating policy issues, and drafting reports. The majority party controls roughly two-thirds of each committee’s staff budget, with the minority guaranteed at least one-third.
Committee roles tend to be specialized and pay comparably to or slightly above personal office positions. For fiscal year 2024, the median committee staff director earned about $221,065, senior counsel roughly $153,127, and professional staff members about $154,554. A chair of a major committee effectively runs a second office worth of employees on top of their personal staff, which is why committee assignments carry so much weight.
Interns
Senate offices also bring on interns, who are generally not counted in the official staffing totals. Most offices rotate a new group each semester or over the summer. Since fiscal year 2019, Congress has appropriated dedicated funding for paid internships in Senators’ personal offices, though the per-office amount is modest, and some Senators add to it from other sources. Interns typically staff the front desk, attend hearings on the Senator’s behalf, research legislative issues, and draft correspondence.