By Brian Weberg

NCSL just completed its update of national data on the number of staff employed by each state legislature. We’re still finalizing all the numbers but we can share a few details about the data now. 

The complete results will be posted to NCSL’s website soon and we will publish additional analysis of trends and comparisons here and in the July/August issue of State Legislatures Magazine.

The following tables show data for the total employees working at a legislature when it’s in session—in other words, these data represent the total of year around, full-time employees plus the staff who are on board for the session only. 

NCSL has been collecting data on legislative staff employment since 1979. We have seen some dramatic changes in staffing during that period, but in 36 years since the first count, some things haven’t changed much at all. 

Take a look at Table 1 below. It lists the five state legislatures with the largest staff employment in 2015 and also shows how those states ranked on the same scale 36 years ago.  A few things stand out. 

First, the top five in 1979 remain the top five today. California has dropped from second place in 1979 to fourth in 2015 but the order otherwise remains the same. 

As a group, in 2015 the legislatures in Table 1 employed nearly 36 percent of all state legislative staff working in all 50 state legislatures. In 1979, that number was 34 percent. And since 1979, staffing in this group of state legislatures has grown by almost 24 percent.

Table 1: 2015 Legislative Staffing—Five Largest with 1979 Comparison

Table 2 illustrates the other end of the staffing spectrum. Again, the states occupying this list haven’t changed much in 36 years. Idaho joined the 2015 list at 46, replacing Delaware in this group.

The total number of staff represented by the five legislatures with the smallest staffs declined between 1979 and 2015.  And in 2015 these legislatures employed only 1.8 percent of all state legislative staff.  In 1979, that figure was 2.2 percent.  Since 1979, this group has experience about a 4 percent decline in total staff. 

Table 2: Legislative Staffing—Five Smallest with 1979 Comparison

Stay tuned to the NCSL Blog as we roll out more results and analysis from these new data.

Brian Weberg is director of legislative studies for NCSL.

Email Brian.