Report: Trump Campaign Pays Men More Than Women

By Sheryl Estrada

A woman working as a campaign staffer for Trump is shortchanged, while a male staffer earns one-third more, according to a new analysis, which also finds the Hillary Clinton campaign pays men and women almost equally.

Using the Federal Election Commission records from April, the most recent month available, The Boston Globe analyzed payroll information submitted by the Trump and Clinton campaigns.

On average, women who work for Trump earned $4,500 in April, while men made almost $6,100, approximately 35 percent more than their women coworkers. Trump’s total staff is only about 28 percent women, and for that month, only two women were the top 15 highest-paid employees.

Women working for Clinton earned an average of $3,710, and the men slightly more, $3,760. Women comprise 52 percent of Clinton’s total staff. Of the top 15 highest-paid employees, seven were women and eight were men.

The Globe reports Clinton has a larger campaign workforce than Trump, “with at least 670 campaign workers who made at least $1,000 in April. The total pay for them was $2.5 million.”

Trump has a smaller operation, with 113 employees paid a total of $635,000.

The analysis included all employees on the payroll, as well as consultants whose compensation could be identified, who earn at least $1,000. Using publicly available photos and information, campaign workers were identified by gender and race.

Sources: The Boston Globe analysis; Fair360, formerly DiversityInc 2016 Top 50 Companies for Diversity Survey (*Fair360, formerly DiversityInc data for Blacks, Latinos, Asians)

The Globe reported that Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks “did not respond to several requests for comment.”

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly asked Trump on Monday night about the newspaper’s report.

“The Boston Globe writes that you pay men in your campaign a third more in salary than you pay women is that true” said O’Reilly.

“The answer is ‘No’ and I just did a check because I heard this was going to be a question,” Trump said. He then corrected his statement saying it “could be a question.”

“I have a good source and somebody said that this could be a question,” he said.

That correction brought into question if Trump was given the interview questions in advance. But in a statement David Tabacoff, senior executive producer for “The O’Reilly Factor,” denied that was the case.

“We never, ever tell the guests what questions will be asked,” Tabacoff said. “Bill O’Reilly is the only person who knows what exactly he’ll ask. We treated this interview like we treat all other guests on the program.”

Trump repeatedly denied the newspaper report, saying, “I just checked with my people on the election stuff and [women] are making more money than men in comparable positions.”

The results of a Quinnipiac University National Poll released June 1found that, overall, Clinton has a 45 – 41 percent lead over Trump. However, women voters support Clinton over Trump.

Asked the question, “If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Hillary Clinton the Democrat and Donald Trump the Republican, for whom would you vote”

54 percent of women said Clinton, while 30 percent said Trump.

In a press conference April 26, Trump said he would do better with woman voters.

“The only card [Clinton] has is the woman’s card,” Trump said.”She’s got nothing else to offer. And frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card, and the beautiful thing is, women don’t like her.”