What does $10,000 mean to you? Well, if you made something around the
median in the U.S. last year, it could mean more than a fifth of your household income.
But what’s $10,000 to you if you’re a female Republican congressional
staffer? It’s about how much less you’d make than the men in your
office, according to salary data from LegiStorm.
As Catherine Hollander notes in this week’s National Journal magazine cover story,
the salary divergence can be largely explained by the gender disparity
in high-level congressional jobs — especially among Republicans. Women
working in Congress tend to have lower-ranking jobs and thus lower
salaries. But the salary contrasts are striking when matched to
congressional salary data on the whole.
