Warren's women staffers earned 71 cents for each dollar earned by men in 2016
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) spoke out on the issue of gender pay equality in a speech on Thursday without noting the equal pay shortcomings in her own senate office, where women earned a fraction of what was earned by men in 2016.
In an address to liberal activists of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Warren said that she is continually reminded on Capitol Hill that she needs to push equal pay.
"Boy, do they keep reminding me about this on Capitol Hill the need to say this," Warren said on Thursday. "We believe in equal pay for equal work."
Warren fell silent on the issue of equal pay after the Washington Free Beacon reported in April that women earned just 71 cents for each dollar earned by men. She notably failed to acknowledge Equal Pay Day this year, separating herself from every other female Democratic senator and most males as well.
Equal Pay Day was used by the Massachusetts senator in previous years to give strong statements demanding legislation to help alleviate the gender pay gap. In 2016, she called Equal Pay Day a "national day of embarrassment" and pledged to continue her "fight" until the pay gap was erased.
The significant pay gap in Warren's office—the median female salary was more than $20,000 less than the median male salary—was due largely to the fact that the top salaries went to men.
Only one woman employed for the entirety of 2016 made six figures, and five men made more than she did.
Warren's office did not respond at the time to requests for comment on its gender pay gap or on its decision to ignore Equal Pay Day after the report. It did, however, unsuccessfully attempt to discount the report by feeding flawed data to the Huffington Post, a liberal blog.
Warren is one of the candidates supported by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which sells baby onesies that say, "I'm from the Elizabeth Warren wing of American Politics" for $25. It also sells a Warren-themed comic book titled Female Force for $6.
A spokesperson for Warren's Senate office noted that she also brought up equal pay at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention last month.
Warren has been criticized for citing the gender pay gap as proof of sexism, given that many other factors are at play besides gender and that her own office has a significant gap.
"We can’t just aggregate the decisions of millions of workers, split them by sex, and infer gender discrimination," wrote the New Hampshire Union Leader editorial board. "Otherwise, we would have to conclude that Elizabeth Warren is sexist."
http://freebeacon.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-calls-equal-pay-ignores-pay-gap-office/
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