Who Walks the Talk on Equal Pay?

Included in Obama’s stump speeches is a discussion on the gender issue of equal pay. Here’s what he has said recently on this topic: "Now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work. I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons."

On his campaign website under the heading "Fighting for Pay Equity,is the following lament, "Despite decades of progress, women still make only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. A recent study estimates it will take another 47 years for women to close the wage gap with men at Fortune 500 corporate offices. Barack Obama believes the government needs to take steps to better enforce the Equal Pay Act..."

Surprisingly, however, this bodacious claim and outrage over unequal pay has failed to become a reality in Obama’s Senate office. Compensation figures for his legislative staff reveal that Obama pays women just 83 cents for every dollar his men make. Granted, this figure exceeds the 77-cent threshold Obama touts as the price floor for women’s pay. However, 83-cents does not equal $1! Despite this gap, Obama attacks McCain and Palin over this issue.

Legistorm, a Congressional watchdog group, reports that Obama's 28 male staffers divided among themselves total payroll expenditures of $1,523,120. Thus, Obama's average male employee earned $54,397. Meanwhile, Obama's 30 female employees split $1,354,580 among themselves, or $45,152, on average. Is this a disparity?

How do McCain's employees stack up in comparison to Obama’s? The results show that McCain's 17 male staffers split $916,914, thus averaging $53,936. His 25 female employees divided $1,396,958 and averaged $55,878. On average, according to these data, women in John McCain's office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes. Wait a minute! Can this be? John McCain’s female staffers average $55,878 while Obama’s average $45,152.

McCain’s female staffers average $1.04 to every $1 per male staffer while Obama’s female staffers average 83-cents to ever $1 per male staffer. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who gets Equal Pay, does it? McCain’s payment patterns are the “stuff of feminist dreams!”

All things being equal, “a typical female staffer could earn 21 cents more per dollar paid to her male counterpart -- while adding $10,726 to her annual income -- by leaving Barack Obama's office and going to work for John McCain.”

Furthermore, for a candidate who is attempting to make Equal Pay such a predominant political issue in 2008, why is it that women are highly under-represented on his highest compensated staff? “Among Obama's five best-paid advisors, only one was a woman. Among his top 20, seven were women.” Murdock reports that “women compose a majority of McCain's highest-paid aides. Among his top-five best-compensated staffers, three are women. Of his 20-highest-salaried employees, 13 are women. The Republican presidential nominee relies on women -- much more than men -- for advice at the highest, and thus, best-paid levels.”

When Governor Sarah Palin was announced as Senator McCain’s running mate, here’s what Obama had to say, “Palin "seems like a very engaging person," Obama told voters in Toledo, Ohio. "But I've got to say, she's opposed -- like John McCain is -- to equal pay for equal work. That doesn't make much sense to me."

Senator Obama, what doesn’t make sense is why the candidate of the Democratic Party is not walking the talk on the issue of equal pay for women which you boast about on the campaign trail? Could it be you are a hypocrite?


(Facts and quotes in this blog are taken from an article written by Deroy Murdock
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/378772_murdockonline12.html)