Republicans Play Up Sexism in Obama's Campaign Staff Pay
Monday, June 30, 2008
CNS News attacks Obama for having more men than women on its payroll and putting the men in higher paying positions. As expected, rightwingers are out in force calling this hypocrisy-squared on Obama's part. And while I confess that I always want to see more women in high-paid positions in all fields, I can't help but marvel at the obvious problem with this characterization. If you actually go to CNS' data breakdown, you see how McCain hires a ton of interns (making just under $6,500/year!), and on average, McCain's female interns are paid less than their male interns. The upshot:
By one measure, however, women did do better in Obama’s office than in McCain’s. When the average salary was calculated for all people on the office payroll, including interns, Clinton paid women an average of $51,948, Obama paid women an average of $48,729, and McCain paid women an average of $47,898. (Clinton’s and Obama’s average salaries are relatively unaffected by adding the interns because Obama employed only one intern, while Clinton employed none. McCain, by contrast, employed 23 interns during the period, including 15 men and 8 women.)So, that "one measure" in which women did better in Obama's office than in McCain's? They got paid more, on average. I'm sure the women in Obama's office are really pissed off about that.
Nothing New byslag
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5:42 PM
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3 dispense karmic justice! (or just comment here):
So it's okay if women are paid less in Obama's campaign.
So if a women makes more as a lawyer than she would as a teacher, she shouldn't complain if the male lawyers make more?
Fantastic reasoning.
Jim Durbin- Clearly, the boundaries of this discussion elude you. No one has argued that women in Obama's campaign got paid less than men did for doing the same job. Read the facts before you complain about the reasoning.
The argument is about equality of pay. Comparing Obama and McCain for by much they pay their staff isn't the issue.
What is the issue is that Obama is out saying he supports Equal Pay for women, but fails to deliver it in his own office.
McCain doesn't support the legislation, but actually practices equality.
Your snarky comment is that women staffers are paid more by Obama then they are by McCain. But they're still paid less than male staffers for Obama.
Which is exactly why rightwingers are pointing out that Obama is all words, and no action.
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