DEMOCRAT
Obama calls it “wrong” and an “embarrassment” that women make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, saying women deserve equal pay for equal work.
“At a time when women make up about half of the workforce, but still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns – we’ve got to finish the job and give women the tools they need to fight for equal pay,” Obama said, calling for an end to “workplace policies that belong in a ‘Mad Men’ episode.”
His remarks echoed what he said the night before in his State of the Union address, and which he’s said before, always to applause.
But a review of White House salaries shows that when the same calculation is applied to the White House, the average female pay at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is less than the average male pay.
The data, which the White House has been required to deliver to Congress since 1995, includes the title and salary of every White House Office employee. It includes more than 400 employees, including administration officials who work at the Office of Policy Development, including the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council – along with White House Office employees.
Asked about its own payroll, the White House said that it should be measured by how it pays men and women in the same jobs, but not the kind of broad brush that compares overall male and female pay.
The 77-cent figure – which Obama used on the campaign trail in 2012 – stems from a 2011 report by the U.S. Census Bureau that found that in 2010, females overall made 77 percent of what males made.
That means all workers regardless of what jobs they hold – not one worker in one particular job compared with another worker in the same job.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/29/3901407/how-does-obama-stack-up-on-womens.html#storylink=cpy