Surprise! Republican Congressmen Pay Male Employees $10,000 More Per Year

Your vagina is an expensive anatomical accessory. In addition to the tampons and gynecologists, over the course of your lifetime, you can expect your vagina to gobble up thousands of dollars worth of possible earnings that you would have made yourself if only you were a man. Unsurprisingly, the pesky pay gap endures even when you work on Capitol Hill, and it double especially endures when you’re working for a Republican.

Analysis by the National Journal shows that women making their way through the series of sphincters that is the US legislative branch can expect to experience a pay gap that’s slightly less than her public sector counterparts — women working for entities that aren’t the US government make, on average 77 cents per dollar men make (this also varies with a woman’s age, education level, and other factors, so calm down, pedants); in Congress, women make 90 cents per dollar a man earns.

When you break it down by party, the gap gets even more interesting, and by “interesting,” I mean “barfy.” While Democratic members of the House paid their female employees slightly less than their male employees — 97 cents per dollar — House Republicans really stiff their ladyworkers, paying them a mere 84 cents per dollar they pay men. Which doesn’t sound bad until you consider the fact that the gap translates to an average of $10,093.09 per year. At least they’re practicing what they preach?

It would be disingenuous to claim that this is all based on blatant sexism on the part of Congressional Republicans, even though they tend to legislate like blatant sexists. The gap is likely due to a multitude of factors, especially a dearth of women in senior positions on Republican Congressional staffs. Why is this? Are women not being promoted? Do they not want to be promoted? Are they dropping out of the workforce to be good conservative women tending their herds of babies?

The gap is much less dramatic (but still crappy) in the Senate, where women working for Democrats make an average of $4,916.46 less than men. Republicans pay their female employees an average of $9,805.85. And men wonder why the onus on them is to pay for dinner on a first date.