Which Senate offices had the highest staff turnover in 2017?

How do the staff turnover data for Senators compare to those of their House colleagues? This week, Senate offices are placed under the 2017 turnover microscope and reveal some interesting findings.

Relying on disbursement data submitted to the Secretary of the Senate, cleaned and verified by LegiStorm, a new LegBranch.com analysis reveals which senators led offices with the highest and lowest staff turnover rates in 2017. This snapshot analysis is part of a larger (forthcoming) project on Hill staff turnover that includes over 15 years of data.

What do the data show?

Turnover rates used in this analysis were constructed by dividing the number of staff that left a particular office (either voluntarily or involuntarily) by the total number of staff the office employed during the year. The median level of staff turnover in Senate offices for 2017 was 16.7 percent. Senators who left Congress during 2017, and thus experienced 100 percent staff turnover, were not included in the analysis. Senators who did not serve more than six months in the chamber were also excluded.

The chart above shows the senators with the lowest and highest levels of staff turnover in 2017. Sens. Murphy, Duckworth, Graham, and Young led the most stable Senate office with only two aides departing each of their offices during 2017. Sen. Bennet’s (D-CO) office experienced the highest level of staff turnover with 33.3 percent of his aides departing in a single year. Twenty-nine senators had turnover rates of 20 percent or more in 2017, while 41 senators led offices that lost less than 15 percent of their staffers.

Variations in the data by party and member gender

Eleven of the 15 (73 percent) most stable Senate offices are held by Democrats (this includes Independent Senators Bernie Sanders). On the other end of the turnover spectrum, 11 of the 15 offices (73 percent) with the highest staff turnover are Republican.

Of course, some of this turnover can likely be attributed to the Trump administration hiring veteran Republican staff off the Hill to help fill White House and federal agency positions. But, as revolving door research suggests, higher turnover in Republican offices could also be due to majority-party staff cashing in on their connections and moving to positions with businesses and other special interest organizations.

Women senators lead both high and low turnover offices. Females represent 22 percent of Senate lawmakers — four of the 15 senators (27 percent) with the highest turnover are women while three of the 15 (20 percent) most stable offices are led by women. Sen. Susan Collins’s (R-ME) office had the highest turnover rate among female senators with 27 percent of her aides turning over in 2017. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) led the most stable office among female senators with a 5.2 percent turnover rate.

Comparing House and Senate Staff Turnover – Quick Tidbits

  • House offices employed, on average, 22 staffers in 2017. In the Senate, the average number of aides per lawmaker is 45.
  • Average 2017 turnover in the House was 18.75 percent, with a standard deviation of 10.05 percent. Senate offices were a bit more stable with an average turnover rate of 16.67 percent, and a much smaller standard deviation of 6.28 percent.

Notes on methodology:

  • Turnover rates are calculated by dividing the number of staff who departed a member’s office during 2017 by the number of staff who received payment from a specific Senator at any point during the 2017 calendar year.
  • Staff includes any aide associated with a specific Senator. This includes committee and leadership offices associated with an individual member (i.e., committee chairs and Senate leaders have higher staff counts because they are allocated additional staffing resources to help with their additional responsibilities).
  • This analysis does not include interns, fellows, part-time, or temporary staffers.
  • The year 2017 refers to the fiscal year as Senate employment records are submitted biannually, on the fiscal year calendar.
Filed Under:
Topics: Congressional Staffing
Tags: Casey Burgat