PIERRE, S.D. (KELO.com) -- State lawmakers may get a big pay raise.
The State Legislature's Executive Board on Monday unanimously approved a plan to tie lawmaker pay to median household income in South Dakota.
Board Chair, House Speaker Mark Mickelson of Sioux Falls said on just $6,000 a year, many citizens can't afford to serve.
"The types of people that can serve in the Legislature are really limited to people that are either retired or who are self-employed, and that closes off the opportunity to a lot of citizens to go serve," Mickelson told KELO Radio's It's Your Business Show with Bill Zortman, just before Monday's decision.
Mickelson said that the median income idea is used in Alabama. If approved by the House and Senate and then by South Dakota voters, it would increase lawmaker pay by over $4,000 a year.
South Dakota lawmakers haven't received a pay raise since the 1990s.