About Turnover
LegiStorm calculates a weighted staff turnover index to allow fair comparison of staff departures among offices which vary in size and composition.
The turnover index is the annualized salary rates of all staff who end their employment with an office during a particular time period, divided by the actual salaries paid to all staff by that office during that time period. As such, the departure of a highly paid chief of staff will have a much greater impact on the turnover index than the departure of a lesser-paid staff assistant. Turnover of 0.0 indicates no turnover during a time period, while a 0.5 turnover index indicates that half of the office, weighted by salary, has turned over per year.
When calculating staff departures and staff salaries paid, we only consider full-time, non-temporary staff. Interns, fellows, staff who are shared among multiple member personal offices, and staff working in positions for less than 30 days are excluded. A staff member is considered departed in the year in which they receive their final salary payment from that office, provided there is no record of later employment (including temporary, part-time or unpaid positions) for that same member, whether in the personal office, a committee office or a leadership office.
Turnover calculations are based on official salary disclosures. As such, the turnover index for House member offices is based on the calendar year, while the turnover index for Senate member offices is based on the Senate fiscal year (Oct. 1 through March 31). It is important to note that the current year turnover index is calculated from partial-year data for actual salary payments (the denominator in the calculation), while still using fully annualized salary rates of departed staff (the numerator in the calculation). This means that until the final salary records for a year are published, the current year turnover data will be inflated when compared to turnover in any historical year.
For comparison purposes, we discourage one-year-only comparisons between most members and those who have special reasons why staff might leave the office. For example, members leaving office will naturally face heavy turnover regardless of whether they are considered good employers. Likewise, we discourage the comparison of normal members with members of leadership. Members in leadership have other funds at their disposal that might be used to pay staffers. For example, a staffer might leave the member's office to go to the leadership office or a national campaign organization that is sponsored by the member. Neither of these situations reflect true turnover yet would be viewed as such in our turnover calculation that looks only at the member's personal office.
