Democrats pay their African American and Hispanic campaign staffers 30 percent less than they do their white staffers, according to a study published at the end of last year by the New Organizing Institute.
The study found that African American staffers were paid 70 cents for every dollar given to their white counterparts, while salaries of Hispanic staffers were even less at 68 cents on the dollar.
Though the data showed that Democratic campaigns are more diverse than Republican campaigns, the Democrats are actually more guilty of perpetuating income disparity.
“Although the proportions of staff are more skewed towards white men on Republican campaigns, the income disparities are more pronounced on Democratic campaigns,” reads the New Organizing Institute blog post that goes along with the analysis.
The researchers speculate that the reason for such disparity is a result of Democrats hiring minorities for lower-level jobs and not moving blacks into positions of leadership as quickly or often as whites.
“Although the overall representation of ethnic minorities on Democratic campaigns appears healthy when the numbers are viewed from thirty thousand feet,” reads the post summarizing the study, “the salary disparities suggest that this representation becomes greatly diminished as you move up the campaign ladder.”
What’s more, as The Daily Beast points out, a study earlier this summer revealed that only 2 percent of money spent during the previous two elections by Democratic campaign committees was paid to minority-owned firms.
Democratic political operative Jamal Simmons, who is a minority himself, informed The Daily Beast of the “prejudice factor” that exists on campaigns.
“There’s a presumption that minorities can’t manage ‘white’ issues. There’s a presumption that white voters won’t like to see a black press secretary, or that white voters won’t want to see an African-American or Latino political director,” Simmons explained. “There’s just a general prejudice factor.”
(H/T The Daily Beast)
