Men Earn On Average $20,000 A Year More Than Women At Sacramento City Hall

Male employees at the City of Sacramento earn on average $20,000 more each year than female workers, according to a new audit report. 

White employees also earn at least $19,000 more annually than workers-of-color or minority workers. White staffers also make up 54 percent of the overall city workforce — even though Sacramento’s total white population is 34 percent.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg says the city's new look at its gender and ethnic diversity indicates a need for serious change.

“It’s very clear that we have to do better and do so with a sense of urgency,” the mayor said in a statement.

The city is more diverse than it was 18 months ago, though. In July 2016, four men were employed by the city for every two women. For new hires since, that ratio was four-to-three. Compared to previous staffing levels, the percentage of new hires who are identified as people-of-color or ethnic minorities increased by at least 10 percent.  

But City Auditor Jorge Oseguera says the audit revealed that there has been a dramatic jump in the number of people whose ethnicity was not specified. "Even though we identified this as a problem more than a year ago, it continues to be an issue,” he said.

“On the one hand, I understand and agree that progress in many ways will be measured over the longer term and it will take time to see a significant uptick in these numbers,” the mayor said in a statement. “But that doesn’t take away from the need to have a real sense of urgency and to look at every major hiring opportunity as just that: an opportunity to improve these numbers.”

Gender equity is greater among city management, which consists of 52 percent men and 48 percent women. But Hispanics and black employees remain under-represented in management, at both 9 percent.

And even in these management roles, men earned on average nearly $20,000 more than women, at $120,144 to $100,400.

The numbers are based on the total number of full-time and part-time employees.

The difference for full-time employees was about $12,000 per year.

The audit also looks at the hiring practices since the first audit came out in July of 2016.

In 2016, 74 percent of the Sacramento Police Department was white. The new report shows 69 percent of new hires since then were white. The number of black officers and pacific islanders increased by 12 percent but the number of hispanics and asians decreased.

The fire department was 75 percent white in 2016. Within the last year, the number of whites and people of color hired was almost the same.

Sac Fire has an equal number of men and women in management.

But, male managers in the fire department make 65 percent of the salaries.

The numbers are similar for the police department.