A conservative think tank estimated based on median White House staffer salaries that the pay gap between men and women who work in President Donald Trump’s administration is more than triple what it was during the last year of former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Mark Perry, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, in a report Monday estimated the pay gap between male and female staffers in Trump’s White House is nearly 37 percent based on median salaries.
Perry cited reports by CNN and Roll Call that the pay gap based on average staffer salaries is 20 percent, but noted: “To be as statistically accurate as possible, almost all reports on pay differences by gender compare median wages, income, or salaries and not differences in average (mean) pay.”
1. There are 374 staffers at the Trump White House who are paid employees: 176 women (47.1%) and 198 men (52.9%).
2. The average (mean) salaries are $84,676 for women and $105,373 for men (these figures are almost identical to those reported by Roll Call).
3. The median salaries are $72,648 for women and $115,000 for men.
He addressed Trump’s daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump, who has been vocal about the gender pay gap.
#EqualPayDay is a reminder that women deserve equal pay for equal work. We must work to close the gender pay gap! https://t.co/CcwsoBXWdF
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) April 4, 2017
“If you are going to promote the statistical falsehood behind Equal Pay Day — that gender discrimination is the main explanatory factor for any aggregate, unadjusted gender differences in earnings — then you might want to investigate the whopping 37% (and $42,350) gender pay gap at your father’s White House,” Perry said.
The Washington Post noted that Perry’s findings indicate the pay gap in Trump’s administration is “more than double the 17 percent gender pay gap nationally.”
Perry estimated in July 2016 that the pay gap between male and female staffers in Obama’s administration based on median salaries was 10.75 percent, less than a third of the pay gap under Trump.
