Study: Senate Democrats Pay Female Staffers Less Than Men

Senate Democrats, who have begun publicly pushing their colleagues to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, may want to tread lightly when decrying the gender pay gap.

According to an analysis of Senate salary data conducted by the Washington Free Beacon, 37 of the 50 Senate Democrats with complete salary data paid their female employees less than their male employees.

Data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that female workers earn 23 percent less than what a comparable male worker earns in an average year. It may sound large, but it is actually smaller than the gender pay gap seen in many Senate Democrats’ offices, including Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Sen. Jon Tester,D-Mont., and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

The study, which did not scrutinize Senate Republicans’ office salaries, simply compared salaries of men and in the aggregate, without any breakdown of job stature or seniority.