Gender pay gap in Trump administration worse than national average, study finds
The gender pay gap in the Trump administration is wider than the national pay gap, according to new research.
A new study reports the women who call the White House their professional home make less than their male counterparts due to a gender pay gap wider than the national average.
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New nonprofit, nonpartisan organization The 19th found a $33K difference between the median salary for male staffers and the median salary for female staffers in President Donald Trump‘s administration. While male staffers at the White House earned $106K on average, women only took home $72,700.
According to The 19th, this breaks down to 69 cents to the male dollar, a larger discrepancy than the national gender pay gap of 82 cents on the dollar.
“To avoid addressing structural and institutional gender discrimination in terms of pay equity, the go-to is to talk about position and title when, in fact, that’s not what’s driving pay inequity,” said C. Nicole Mason, the president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research to The 19th. “It’s decisions that are being made from the top down about the valuing of women’s work and how much they should be paid.”
Both the White House gender pay gap and the national gender pay gap are results ‘raw’ pay gaps. According to The 19th, the term used by economists means the data does not account for experience, education, title, or any other factors which may impact a person’s salary. Allegations of gender bias from women working for Trump are not new.
TheGrio reports that Omarosa Manigault-Newman, former White House aide to Trump, joined a lawsuit accusing the Trump campaign of gender pay discrimination. The Apprentice breakout star alleges she was paid only $7K a month while her male colleague earned $11K a month for doing the same work. She says other female staffers who had “more experience and more education,” were also paid less.
The 19th reports gender pay gaps are not new to the Trump presidency. The organization found that during Barack Obama’s presidency, women were paid between 84 and 89 cents for every dollar paid to male staffers. His margin, however, is slimmer than the current POTUS and the national gender pay gap during his presidential era.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany issued a statement saying President Trump “implements policies that empower women across the country,” and claims he has ” has taken unprecedented action to support women and girls,” according to The 19th.
McEnany cites a historic low unemployment rate for women in 2019 under the Trump administration although The 19th notes female unemployment has risen to historic highs since the coronavirus pandemic.
The White House statement also notes the passage of paid family leave for federal employees, the passage of a child care tax credit, and the Ivanka Trump-led Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative as proof it is fair to women.
But research by The 19th finds that 40% of staffers with rankings including assistants, deputy assistants, and special assistants in the Trump White House were women, less than the 50% gender split in the Obama administration, despite the current POTUS claiming to have employed the most women in senior positions in United States history.
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“The Trump administration has shown no interest in taking steps to close the racial and gender wage gap impacting working women across this country,” said Emily Martin, vice president of education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center, according to The 19th.
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