The controversy over committee leadership stipends continued Tuesday with Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins calling for an investigation and Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein countering that the payments were legal.

“The time has come for someone in authority to properly look into these obvious violations of state law,’’ Cousins said in a prepared statement.

The payments, known as lulus, were intended to be paid to Senate Republicans in committee chair positions who instead passed along the payments to IDC members who were vice chairs of various legislative committees, a position that does not normally result in added income. The vice chairs were incorrectly listed as chairs of their respective committees in payroll documents forwarded to the comptroller’s office, which was responsible for authorizing the payments, according to the New York Times.

“I stand by the hard work of my members,’’ Klein said at a press conference earlier in the day.

An analysis by the Times Union indicates the lawmakers who received the stipends, which range from $12,500 to $18,000 a year, still earn far more than most of their constituents even without legislative pay raises since 1999.

A comparison of the $79,500 base salaries for legislators, with the stipends added, shows the income of those lawmakers embroiled in the controversy is well above the median household incomes in their local communities, according to census data.

IDC member Jose Peralta of Queens, for instance, earns $92,000, including the stipend for serving on the Energy and Telecommunications Committee.

Census data shows a $52,310 median income in the ZIP code where Peralta’s Elmhurst office is located.

Fellow IDC member Diane Savino, who gets an $18,000 stipend atop her $79,500 — for a $97,500 annual income — has a district office in Staten Island where the median income is $54,605.

Median is the point at which half of the salaries are above and half are below. It can be a more reliable snapshot than averages where, say, a few very large numbers at the higher end can skew the results.

With a statewide income median of $59,269, wages tend to be in consistent bands, with lots of areas showing income ranges in the $40,000-$60,000 range.

There are a few outliers, which could reflect small or highly distinct communities in a region.

Part of Savino’s district in Brooklyn, for example, has a $28,006 median household income.

David Valesky from Syracuse, who earns $94,500, has a home office in an area with a median income of just $15,566. But the median income listed under the postal area for Peterboro in his district’s central area is $70,168.

GOP Sen. Tom O’Mara, who gets a $15,000 stipend as a vice chairman, has an office in Elmira, where the median income is just $26,766.

Sen. Pat Gallivan, another Republican, receives an $18,000 vice chairman’s stipend. The median income for the area where his home office is located in Elma, east of Buffalo, is $78,322. But in the physical center of his district, around North Java, it drops to $41,359.

North Country Republican Patty Ritchie, with a $15,000 stipend atop her $79,500 pay, has both Watertown and Oswego in her district, where the median incomes range from $45,971 to $47,467.

The sharp differences between what some lawmakers make in comparison to their constituents hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Bill Samuels, of Effective New York, a government reform group, acknowledges that lawmakers have gone years without a raise but noted they have been unable to help economically depressed areas upstate, where stagnant growth is compounded by high property taxes.

“It just showed how our state government has let the average earning power, especially upstate, decline,’’ he said.

Ken Girardin, communications director for the fiscally conservative Empire Center, noted that lawmakers, like many public sector employees, also get benefits such as health and retirement pensions that substantially raise their actual earnings.

“I don’t think any conversation (about legislative pay) should stop at $79,500,’’ Girardin said.

© 2017 Times Union