--- title: White House Gender Pay Gap Hasn't Changed Under President Barack Obama description: The average male White House employee earns over $10,000 more than average female employee canonical: https://time.com/2950240/gender-pay-equity-barack-obama/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-02T15:18:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:27.432Z og:title: White House Gender Pay Gap Hasn't Changed Under President Barack Obama og:description: The average male White House employee earns over $10,000 more than average female employee og:url: https://time.com/2950240/gender-pay-equity-barack-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45b9500c2bded87a/69869a4f06f2c1599232fc21/barack-obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Barack Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Gender Pay Gap Hasn't Changed Under President Barack Obama twitter:description: The average male White House employee earns over $10,000 more than average female employee twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45b9500c2bded87a/69869a4f06f2c1599232fc21/barack-obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Pay Gap Hasn't Changed Under Obama > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: President Obama Takes Action on Equal Pay [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama Takes Action on Equal Pay](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IXg3zfGa.m3u8) (1:27)  _Published 2014-04-08. The President takes executive action on equal pay_  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jul 2, 2014 3:18 PM UTC  President Barack Obama pauses while speaking about transportation and the economy on July 1, 2014, at the Georgetown Waterfront Park in Washington. President Barack Obama pauses while speaking about transportation and the economy on July 1, 2014, at the Georgetown Waterfront Park in Washington.Charles Dharapak—AP  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jul 2, 2014 3:18 PM UTC The pay gap between men and women working at the White House has not narrowed since President Barack Obama’s first year in office, according to [a new report](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/male-female-pay-gap-remains-entrenched-at-white-house/2014/07/01/dbc6c088-0155-11e4-8fd0-3a663dfa68ac%5Fstory.html?hpid=z5), despite Obama’s emphasis on pay equity ahead of the midterm elections. Salary data compiled by the Washington _Post_ found a 13% gap between the genders: The average salary for men in the White House is $88,600 per year, while the average salary for women is $78,400 per year, the _Post_ reports. That gap has persisted since 2009, when male employees earned an average of $82,000, and female employees made $72,700. One explanation for the gap is that there are more men than women in higher-paying, senior jobs at the White House: 87 male White House officials earn more $100,000, compared to 53 women. “At the White House, we have equal pay for equal work,” White House spokeswoman Jessica Santillo [told the _Post_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/male-female-pay-gap-remains-entrenched-at-white-house/2014/07/01/dbc6c088-0155-11e4-8fd0-3a663dfa68ac%5Fstory.html?hpid=z5). “Men and women in equivalent roles earn equivalent salaries, and over half of our departments are run by women.” She added that the White House is working to place more women in senior positions. Obama has argued throughout the year that raising the minimum wage would help women and has [signed two executive orders](http://time.com/50955/obama-executive-order-wage-gap-women/) that aim make workplace pay more transparent and allow women to discover if they are earning less for the same job. The executive orders only apply to federal contractors, but the president has also pushed the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would mandate the same transparency for the general workforce. “A woman deserves equal pay for equal work,” Obama [said in this year’s State of the Union](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/29/state-of-the-union-mad-men/) address. “She deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job,” Obama added. Other parts of the federal government have a similar wage gap. But the 13% gap is still better than that of the nation as a whole, which by one measure has a 23.5% disparity. \[[_Washington Post_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/male-female-pay-gap-remains-entrenched-at-white-house/2014/07/01/dbc6c088-0155-11e4-8fd0-3a663dfa68ac%5Fstory.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2950240/gender-pay-equity-barack-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2950240/gender-pay-equity-barack-obama/"},"headline":"White House Pay Gap Hasn't Changed Under Obama","datePublished":"2014-07-02T15:18:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:27.432Z","description":"The average male employee earns over $10,000 more than average female employee","url":"https://time.com/2950240/gender-pay-equity-barack-obama/","keywords":["Living","feminism","politics","pay gap"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45b9500c2bded87a/69869a4f06f2c1599232fc21/barack-obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45b9500c2bded87a/69869a4f06f2c1599232fc21/barack-obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barack Obama","caption":"Barack Obama","creditText":"Charles Dharapak—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2950240/gender-pay-equity-barack-obama/","name":"White House Pay Gap Hasn't Changed Under Obama"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Obama Takes Action on Equal Pay","description":"The President takes executive action on equal pay","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/IXg3zfGa/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-04-08T21:25:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IXg3zfGa.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/2950240/gender-pay-equity-barack-obama/","duration":"PT1M27S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/2950240/gender-pay-equity-barack-obama/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```