Some locals at US diplomatic posts earn less than $1 a day

And yet Congress gets an automatic raise the first of the year.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A new State Department report says some local employees hired by U.S. embassies and other posts around the world are so poorly paid they have to cut back to one meal a day or send their children to peddle on the streets.

The report from the Office of the Inspector General looked at how the U.S. pays more than 51,000 local non-American employees in about 170 missions. In addition to the hardship caused to the workers because of inadequate pay, the report found that the U.S. is losing staff to other higher-paying employers and may not be able to fill vacancies with qualified people.

The report blamed an overwhelmed, inadequately staffed employment office in Washington for inability make appropriate changes to pay levels and to keep up with events overseas, such as inflation, that quickly erode buying power.

The report says the hardest-hit local employees are those at the lowest levels, and quotes some employees saying some of them make less than $1 a day. Some U.S. missions are located in impoverished parts of the world where low salaries are common, and there is a wide range in pay depending on what jobs are performed and where.
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