Racial Gap: Evidence from Congressional Staff

• In Event: Race, Representation, and Institutions

Abstract

The salience of race in contemporary American politics has attracted scholarly research studying its impact under different contexts. However, relatively little attention is given to study whether and how race affects staffer in the congressional office. Here, we argue that racial gaps exist in this context. Using a comprehensive dataset of over sixteen thousand congressional staffers from the 107th Congress to the 114th Congress, we find the relatively low presence of minority staffers in both the Senate and House. We also find that minority staffers, especially female staffers, are more likely to take lower rank positions with fewer promotion chances. We argue that racial differences are best understood as the joint product of economic inequality across racial lines and congressional chambers' financial constraints. These findings have important ramifications for understanding racial equality empirically and theoretically.

Author

• Fred Gui, University of Rochester