Yes, really…
As if endangering healthcare, climate change and the economy wasn’t enough, Donald Trump’s presidency has undoubtedly been detrimental to women’s rights, dramatically increasing the gender pay gap.
The gender pay gap in the White House has more than tripled in the first year of his administration, with female members of staff reportedly earning 63 cents for every dollar male staffers make.
With the US Labour Department acknowledging the national average as 82 cents to the dollar, the White House is almost 20% behind the rest of the country.
The new findings come from an analysis by Mark Perry, economist of the American Enterprise Institute, who explained how the data was determined. ‘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’ he explained.
When analysing the current gender pay gap (the worst recorded in the White House under any administration since 2003), it seems that there might be some grey areas.
While Trump has a fairly even gender split, with women making up 47% of his regular employees, it looks like there’s actually a huge imbalance when it comes to positions.
According to Perry, the highest paid staff roles go to men, with only 26% of women making up the top White House jobs.
We wonder what Ivanka Trump thinks of this. The First Daughter and Assistant to the President has made a point of advocating for women’s rights, tweeting earlier this year, ‘Women deserve equal pay for equal work. We must work to close the gender pay gap!’
