White House press secretary Jay Carney Monday tried to sidestep data showing that President Barack Obama pays his female aides less than his male aides.
“Everybody at every level here at the White House is paid the same for the same work, male or female,” he said.
But studies show that male White House employees are paid more than women.
Obama is expected to sign two directives on Tuesday that is intended to partly level the pay given to men and women by the federal government contractors.
Obama wants “equal pay for equal work, and that’s what we have” in the White House, Carney insisted.
He suggested the White House’s pay disparity could be caused by female over-representation among lower-level employees. The lower-paid slots “may or may not be filled by more women than men,” he said.
A January analysis by The Daily Caller showed that Obama’s female staff is paid 11.8 percent less than his male staff.
“The median 2013 salary for men was $73,729, while the median salary for women was $65,000,” TheDC reported.
A December 2013 study by the American Enterprise Institute produced the same result. It said that women are paid 88 cents for every dollar paid to men. The average salary for women was $65,000, while the average salary for men was $73,729.
Obama and his political allies suggest that the pay disparity in the private sector is caused by deceptive and unfair company practices.
“Today, women make up about half of our workforce, and more than half of our college graduates [and] more women are now their families’ main breadwinner than ever before,” Obama said in his March 22 weekly address.
“Our economy hasn’t caught up to this new reality yet,” he claimed. “On average, a woman still earns just 77 cents for every dollar a man does… too many women face outdated workplace policies that hold them back — which in turn holds back our families and our entire economy,” he claimed.
“There’s work to be done across the country, and we need to engage in that,” Carney claimed Monday.