Overview
The 
Senate Staff Employment Study: Salary, Tenure and Demographic Data: 1991-2001 (206 KB) is a compilation of six reports produced by CMF. It includes aggregate data on the salary, race/ethnicity, and gender of staff. Any data or information excerpted from this report must be attributed to the Congressional Management Foundation. Please contact us with any questions.
Methodology
In preparing this report, CMF compiled the aggregated and individual data of salary, tenure and demographic information reported in the six Senate Staff Employment Studies we published from 1991 to 2001. For each of these reports, CMF collected responses from 55 to 62% of all Senate personal offices. Over the decade CMF has collected information on 11,989 Senate, personal office staff. In this report, we have included aggregate data analyses we believe provide the most meaningful and useful management information to Senate offices. These findings are divided into three categories: Salary Data, Tenure Data, and Demographic Data (Gender, Race/Ethnicity).
To provide a useful comparison for analyzing this data, CMF includes comparisons of Senate compensation and other personnel practices to other labor markets, such as the federal executive branch, the U.S. labor force, and comparable House of Representatives data (from 1990-2000), where relevant and possible.
Key Findings
- Minority Hiring: The percentage of minorities working in the Senate remained unchanged from 1991 to 2001 (14.5%), with small fluctuations depending on the year surveyed. Minority staffing levels in the Senate and House reached their peak in 1995 and 1994, respectively.
| Table 1 - Senate Staff Employment by Race/Ethnicity: The Historical Record (1991-2001) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Asian | Black | Hispanic | Other Minorities | Total Minority |
| 2001 | 1.0% | 8.3% | 3.6% | 1.6% | 14.5% |
| 1999 | 1.1% | 8.4% | 3.6% | 1.3% | 14.4% |
| 1997 | 1.5% | 8.3% | 2.5% | 1.3% | 13.6% |
| 1995 | 1.6% | 9.0% | 3.5% | 1.3% | 15.4% |
| 1993 | N/A | 8.7% | 3.1% | 2.9% | 14.7% |
| 1991 | N/A | 8.1% | 3.2% | 3.2% | 14.5% |
| Note: "Other Minorities" combines data for Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and employees choosing "Other" in the survey. |
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| Table 2 - House Staff Employment by Race/Ethnicity: The Historical Record (1990-2000) | |||||
| Year | Asian | Black | Hispanic | Other Minorities | Total Minority |
| 2000 | 1.2% | 7.6% | 5.3% | 1.4% | 15.5% |
| 1998 | 1.5% | 5.9% | 5.7% | 1.4% | 14.2% |
| 1996 | 1.4% | 6.8% | 5.2% | 1.0% | 14.2% |
| 1994 | 1.5% | 7.9% | 5.4% | 1.4% | 16.2% |
| 1992 | N/A | 9.9% | 3.6% | N/A | 15.5% |
| 1990 | N/A | 9.4% | 3.6% | 1.1% | 13.8% |
| Note: "Other Minorities" combines data for Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and employees choosing "Other" in the survey. |
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- Pay Gap Between Senate Staff and Federal Employees: The gap between the pay of DC-based Senate staff and executive branch staff has nearly doubled in the last decade, with Senate staff now earning about two-thirds of federal government employees. The average Senate staff member earned 18% less than an executive branch employee in 1991 – that gap increased to 32% in 2001.
| Table 3 - DC-Based Senate versus Federal Government Pay | |||
| Year | DC-Based Senate | DC-Based Federal | Gap |
| 2001 | $49,236 | $64,969 | 32% |
| 1999 | $45,223 | $59,745 | 32% |
| 1997 | $42,343 | $56,191 | 33% |
| 1995 | $39,414 | $51,376 | 30% |
| 1993 | $38,971 | $46,783 | 20% |
| 1991 | $35,802 | $42,413 | 18% |
- Pay Gap by Gender: The gap between pay for men and women in the Senate continues to narrow. Women on average earn 84% of the pay of men in the Senate; while women in the private sector earn 65% of the pay of men.
- Women in Executive Positions: Women hold a greater percentage of executive positions in the Senate than in the federal government or major U.S. companies. Women now account for 41.6% of executive positions in the Senate; 25.2% in the federal government; and 12.5% in Fortune 500 companies. The growth of women in these positions rose by 4.7 percentage points in the last two years.
- Tenure of Senate Staff: Tenure of DC-based Senate staff has decreased during the last decade. The time an average Senate staff member remains in his or her position has dropped 29% to 2.2 years; the average time the staff remain in the same office has dropped 21% to 3.1 years; and the average time staff remain in Congress dropped 12% to 5.0 years.
