Taxpayers fleeced in bailout of Senate barbershop ‘institution’

BY MARK STRICHERZ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012

America’s most distinguished leaders get their hair cut at the Senate barbershop, but taxpayers are the ones really getting clipped.

The barbershop ran almost $300,000 in the red last year but received an infusion from Senate coffers that is keeping it in business, the Senate sergeant at arms, Terrance Gainer, told The Daily.

A federal bailout isn’t that unusual since the economic downturn, but some senators didn’t even know their salon was in hot water — and don’t think it should be, considering what they pay for a little off the ears.

A shampoo, cut and blow dry is $27 and highlights are $105, according to the barbershop’s website. A trim costs $20, more than double what Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., gets charged when he goes to his barber back home.

When Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., learned about the shortfall, he said, “It did? It shouldn’t. It should pay for itself.”

Former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., blames the money woes on the stylists, who are federal employees. He contends they’re overpaid compared to their private-sector counterparts.

“They are using union labor, and so their benefits and wages are higher than those of many jobs,” Fitzgerald said.

To support his argument, Fitzgerald contrasts the salaries and benefits of the Senate’s stylists to what is offered by Capitol Barber, three blocks away.

Capitol’s four barbers and stylists made $22,000 to $30,000 last year with no benefits, manager Lynn Dang said. At the Senate barbershop, formally called Senate Hair Care Services, the top four barbers and stylists made more than twice that — $54,761; $70,349; $73,658; and $81,641 — plus they have a generous 401(k) plan, health care and paid vacation. In all, the government contributed $230,000 in benefits for the barbershop, said Eve Goldsher, a spokeswoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Gainer acknowledged the barbershop’s staff members “are well paid, and it gives them a leg up on their nongovernment counterparts.”

Regardless of where they stand on lending the barbershop a financial hand, senators agree the barbershop is first rate.

Housed in Room 70 of the Russell Senate Office Building, the barbershop is easy to get to from the Senate floor. All a customer has to do is take the elevator and to the basement, hop on an underground Senate train and walk a few hundred feet.

For the barbershop’s first 110 or so years of operation, from 1859 through the early 1970s, senators were its only customers — and they didn’t hand over a dime for their dos, according to Senate historian Donald Ritchie.

Today, the barbershop is open to the public and had 27,000 customers last year. Legislators are still special, though. Hanging on one wall is a white 2-foot-by-3-foot sign stating: “Members and employees of the Senate shall have priority in this shop.”

Perhaps a future president gets his — or her — hair done now at the salon; it’s anybody’s guess. What is certain is that the barbershop is an institution — and Gainer wants to make sure it survives, however he has to.