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How much are members of the French parliament paid? No clear answer can be provided to this apparently trivial question for most of the twentieth century. Based on new research carried out in the archives of the lower chamber, the Assemblée nationale, this article offers an estimate of the revenues politicians have collected from their parliamentary activity since the early twentieth century. This rich seam of historical data is used to address three interrelated questions: Why is it so complex to access supposedly public information? Where do French parliamentarians’ earnings place them on the scale of the active population? Finally, what do the evolutions identified (in terms of both value and kind) reveal about the professional activity of these representatives? In probing these questions, the article sheds new light on political careers in France.