House Communications Staff Averaged $84,601 in 2025
In LY 2025 YTD, the average House communications team staffer made $84,601.
That number is slightly below the average for All House Staff, Excluding Interns, which was $85,847.
The difference is $1,246.
At first glance, communications staff look slightly below average for permanent House staff. But that comparison includes the leadership team, where salaries are much higher.
Once leadership staff are removed and communications staff are compared with their non-leadership peers outside the communications team, the comparison changes.
In this article, “peer staff” means non-communications, non-leadership House staff.
That peer group averaged $78,907.
Communications staff averaged $84,601.
That is a $5,694 gap.
The average House communications team staffer made $84,601 in LY 2025 YTD.
Communications Staff Salaries Look Different When Compared With Their Peers
Why the Comparison Changes When Leadership Is Removed
The all-staff no-intern average is useful because it removes interns from the salary calculation. HillClimbers explains that denominator issue in its article on why the average House staff salary changes when interns are excluded.
But even after interns are excluded, the House workforce still contains very different types of jobs.
A Chief of Staff or Deputy Chief of Staff sits in a different salary category than a communications aide, district staffer, Scheduler, Staff Assistant, or Constituent Services Representative/Caseworker.
That is why the peer comparison is useful. It strips away the highest-paid leadership layer and compares communications staff against the rest of the permanent non-leadership workforce outside communications.
On that basis, communications staff sit higher.
The gap is $5,694.
That does not prove that communications staff are overpaid or underpaid. It does show that the communications function occupies a higher compensation tier than much of the non-leadership House workforce.
What the $84,601 Communications Team Average Includes
The communications team average includes several different roles, not one job title.
HillClimbers groups the House communications team around these core roles:
A Press Secretary/Communications Director typically leads the office’s messaging operation. A Deputy Press Secretary/Digital Director often supports media relations, social media, digital communications, and rapid response. Communications Staff may support press clips, drafting, event messaging, digital content, constituent-facing communications, and other public-facing work.
Those roles belong to the same team, but they are not the same job.
That distinction matters for salary searches. The $84,601 figure is a public communications team benchmark. It is not the exact salary for every Press Secretary, Communications Director, Digital Director, Deputy Press Secretary, or communications aide.
How Much Does a Congressional Communications Director Make?
The best public answer is this:
A Communications Director or Press Secretary is part of the House communications team, and the average House communications team staffer made $84,601 in LY 2025 YTD.
That does not mean every Communications Director made $84,601.
The communications team average includes senior communications roles and more junior communications roles. A senior Press Secretary/Communications Director should not be benchmarked only against the team average. A junior communications staffer should not be treated as interchangeable with the office’s top communications lead.
For public context, the communications team average is useful.
For salary negotiation, role-level data matters.
The team average answers the public question. Role-level data answers the negotiation question.
Communications Staff Sit Above Their Non-Leadership Peer Average
The most useful comparison in the graphic is not only communications staff versus all staff excluding interns.
It is communications staff versus non-communications, non-leadership staff.
The average House communications team staffer made $84,601. The non-communications, non-leadership average was $78,907.
That means communications staff averaged $5,694 more.
That is roughly a 7.2 percent difference.
The finding fits the modern role of a congressional office. Communications staff help Members speak to constituents, local media, national media, stakeholders, advocacy groups, and digital audiences. They manage public messaging in an environment where congressional work is increasingly visible, fast-moving, and platform-driven.
The operational effect is straightforward: communications work carries a different compensation profile than many other non-leadership office functions.
That does not make other teams less important. District staff, legislative staff, administrative staff, and constituent services staff all perform essential work.
It does mean that salary analysis needs team-level context.
Communications Is Also the Permanent Team With the Clearest Growth
The salary comparison is only part of the story.
Communications is also the permanent non-leadership team with the clearest long-term staffing growth.
In 2016, House communications teams averaged 474 daily staff. By 2025, that figure had risen to 688.
That is an increase of 214.05 average daily staff, or about 45%.
That growth stands out against the rest of the permanent non-leadership workforce. Legislative staffing was slightly lower in 2025 than in 2016. Administrative staffing declined sharply. District and constituent services staffing were relatively flat over the same period.
The only workforce category with more dramatic growth was interns and non-permanent staff, which grew from 389 in 2016 to 1,565 in 2025. HillClimbers explores that broader workforce shift in When Interns Become Infrastructure, Congressional Intern Staffing Year-Round and the Congressional Intern-to-Staff Ratio analysis.
Communications is different. It is not an intern category. It is a permanent office function that appears to have become more central to how Member offices operate.
HillClimbers has already shown this staffing trend visually in its analysis of congressional institutional memory. The communications team’s growth is part of that larger story: Member offices are changing not only in how many people they employ, but in what kinds of work they are prioritizing.
That shift changes how the office functions. Congressional communications is no longer just press releases and reactive media work. It now includes digital platforms, social media, newsletters, rapid response, local press, national press, stakeholder messaging, and constituent-facing content.
Communications grew about 45% from 2016 to 2025, making it the clearest growth story among permanent non-leadership teams.
Communications Salaries Compared With Other House Staff Teams
The communications team is not the highest-paid non-leadership team, but it is above several other major House staff functions.
In LY 2025 YTD:
- District staff averaged $88,184.
- Legislative staff averaged $86,020.
- Communications staff averaged $84,601.
- Administrative staff averaged $70,991.
- Constituent services staff averaged $70,466.
That team-by-team view is more useful than one broad average.
Communications staff sit below district and legislative staff, but above administrative and constituent services staff. They are also $5,694 above the non-communications, non-leadership peer average.
That position makes communications a middle-to-upper tier non-leadership staff function in the House salary structure.
This Article Is Part of a Team-by-Team Salary Series
This communications team article is one part of a broader HillClimbers salary series on House staff compensation by team.
The full series includes:
- House Legislative Staff Salary: $86,020 Average
- House Communications Staff Salary: $84,601 Average
- House District Staff Salary: $88,184 Average
- House Administrative Staff Salary: $70,991 Average
- House Constituent Services Staff Salary: $70,466 Average
Together, these team articles create a better public map of House staff compensation.
A single House-wide average tells readers what the entire workforce looks like. Team-level averages explain how compensation differs by office function. Role-level benchmarks explain what specific jobs are likely to pay.
That progression matters for job seekers, offices, researchers, and journalists.
Why Communications Salary Searches Need Team-Level Context
Many people search by title.
They ask:
“How much does a congressional Communications Director make?”
“How much does a House Press Secretary make?”
“What is a congressional Digital Director salary?”
“What does communications staff make on Capitol Hill?”
Those are reasonable questions, but broad congressional salary averages often fail them.
The all-staff average may include interns, part-time employees, temporary staff, district staff, administrative staff, communications staff, constituent services staff, leadership staff, and legislative staff. That is too broad for someone evaluating a communications job.
The All House Staff, Excluding Interns benchmark is better because it removes interns. But even that number still includes leadership salaries.
For communications roles, the better public comparison is the communications team average of $84,601.
For serious salary analysis, the next step is role-level data.
Why Role-Level Salary Data Still Matters
Team-level salary averages are useful. They are not enough.
A Press Secretary/Communications Director is usually a senior communications lead. A Deputy Press Secretary/Digital Director may manage digital strategy, media support, rapid response, or a combination of responsibilities. Communications Staff may include a wider range of public-facing support roles.
Those jobs sit on the same team, but they do not sit at the same level.
The same logic applies across the office. A Legislative Director is not the same as a Legislative Assistant. A Director of Constituent Services/Casework is not the same as a Constituent Services Representative/Caseworker. A District Director is not the same as a Field Representative. A Scheduler is not the same as a Staff Assistant.
That is why the team average is a public benchmark, not a final answer.
For salary negotiation, hiring strategy, workforce research, or career planning, the right comparison is the specific role.
A Communications Director salary should be compared to communications roles, not the entire House workforce.
What This Means for Congressional Job Seekers
For job seekers, the $84,601 communications team average is a useful anchor.
It tells you that House communications staff, as a group, are slightly below the all-staff no-intern average but above non-communications, non-leadership peers.
That helps frame a communications job search.
A job seeker should ask whether the position is a Press Secretary/Communications Director role, a Deputy Press Secretary/Digital Director role, a general Communications Staff role, or a hybrid title. The difference matters.
The salary question should also account for the scope of the job. Does the role manage local press, national press, digital strategy, speechwriting, rapid response, newsletters, social media, or all of the above? Does it require previous Hill experience? Is the office in a high-profile media market? Is the position entry-level, mid-level, or senior?
Those details change the salary comparison.
Readers can review current openings through HillClimbers congressional jobs and the broader HillClimbers jobs board. The member office roles page can help readers understand how congressional jobs fit into the structure of a Member office.
What This Means for Congressional Offices
For Member offices, communications salary data is not just a compensation issue.
It is an office capacity issue.
The communications team helps an office explain what the Member is doing, respond to public events, manage press inquiries, reach constituents, and maintain a coherent public message. When communications staff are experienced, stable, and well matched to their responsibilities, offices can operate with more consistency and less reputational risk.
When communications teams are thin, inexperienced, or unstable, offices can lose message discipline, miss opportunities, or struggle to respond quickly.
That connects communications salary analysis to broader HillClimbers research on congressional staffing budget pressure, House office size and staffing trends, new House Members having smaller teams, and congressional institutional memory.
The institutional stakes are larger than the salary count. Pay affects retention, public-facing capacity, role progression, and the ability of congressional offices to communicate effectively in a fast-moving information environment.
Related HillClimbers Salary and Staffing Analysis
The communications team salary average is one part of a larger congressional workforce picture.
For readers comparing communications pay to broader congressional compensation, HillClimbers explains why the average House staff salary changes when interns are excluded. That article shows why denominator choices affect broad congressional salary averages.
Communications salaries also connect to office capacity. HillClimbers has analyzed congressional staffing budget pressure, House office size and staffing trends, entry-level congressional staff decline, and administrative staff salary decline.
The communications team is also tied to institutional knowledge. When experienced staff leave, offices lose more than headcount. They lose message history, media relationships, district context, stakeholder knowledge, and internal judgment about how the Member communicates. That is why HillClimbers also tracks congressional staff turnover in lower-paying offices, career opportunities in freshman congressional offices, and congressional staff experience as Member tenure changes.
For broader public staffing context, readers can start with HillClimbers’ congressional staffing salary and staffing data, staffing insights, congressional dataset, and the HillClimbers Index.
FAQ Section
How much do House communications staff make?
In LY 2025 YTD, the average House communications team staffer made $84,601. That figure is a team-level benchmark, not a precise salary for every communications role. Communications pay can vary by office, title, seniority, media market, responsibilities, and whether the role includes press, digital, speechwriting, rapid response, or broader communications strategy.
What is the average congressional Communications Director salary?
A Communications Director is part of the House communications team, where the average team salary was $84,601 in LY 2025 YTD. However, Communications Director is often a senior communications role and should not be evaluated only against the team average. For accurate salary analysis, Communications Director compensation should be compared to Communications Director or Press Secretary/Communications Director benchmarks.
Is $84,601 the average Press Secretary salary?
No. The $84,601 figure is the average salary for the House communications team overall. It includes multiple communications roles at different levels, including Press Secretary/Communications Director, Deputy Press Secretary/Digital Director, and Communications Staff. A precise Press Secretary benchmark requires role-level data.
Is the House communications team growing?
Yes. Among permanent non-leadership teams, communications shows the clearest long-term staffing growth. House communications teams averaged 474 daily staff in 2016 and 688 in 2025, an increase of about 45%. That growth suggests communications has become a more central function inside Member offices.
How has congressional communications staffing changed since 2016?
Congressional communications staffing increased substantially from 2016 to 2025. House communications teams grew from 474 average daily staff in 2016 to 688 in 2025. Over the same period, administrative staffing declined, legislative staffing was slightly lower, and district and constituent services staffing were relatively flat. The clearest larger workforce shift was the rise of interns and non-permanent staff.
How does communications staff pay compare to the average House staff salary?
House communications staff averaged $84,601 in LY 2025 YTD. All House staff excluding interns averaged $85,847, so the communications team average was $1,246 lower than the permanent staff average. Compared with non-communications, non-leadership staff, communications staff averaged $5,694 higher.
How does communications staff pay compare to other House staff teams?
In LY 2025 YTD, district staff averaged $88,184, legislative staff averaged $86,020, communications staff averaged $84,601, administrative staff averaged $70,991, and constituent services staff averaged $70,466. Communications staff sit below district and legislative staff but above administrative and constituent services staff.
What roles are included in the House communications team?
HillClimbers’ House communications team includes Press Secretary/Communications Directors, Deputy Press Secretary/Digital Directors, and Communications Staff. These roles support media relations, digital communication, public messaging, rapid response, and constituent-facing communications.
Why are communications salaries different from legislative salaries?
Communications and legislative roles support different office functions. Legislative staff focus on policy, bills, committees, issue portfolios, and legislative strategy. Communications staff focus on public messaging, media, digital platforms, constituent-facing communication, and rapid response. In LY 2025 YTD, legislative staff averaged $86,020, while communications staff averaged $84,601.
Where can I find current congressional communications jobs?
Readers can review current openings on HillClimbers congressional jobs and the broader HillClimbers jobs board. HillClimbers role-summary pages also provide public context on congressional job titles, responsibilities, and how each role fits into a Member office.
Where can readers explore congressional salary data?
Readers can start with HillClimbers’ public congressional staffing page, staffing insights, and role summary pages. For role-specific salary benchmarks, workforce trends, career paths, and office-level insights, readers can use the HillClimbers Index or review HillClimbers plans.
Suggested Reading
- Average House Staff Salary Without Interns
- House Legislative Staff Salary: $86,020 Average
- House District Staff Salary: $88,184 Average
- House Administrative Staff Salary: $70,991 Average
- House Constituent Services Staff Salary: $70,466 Average
- Congressional Staffing Budget Pressure
- House Office Size and Staffing Trends
- Congressional Entry-Level Staff Decline
- Congressional Institutional Memory