Who’s on the Hill? Staffing and Human Capital in Congress’s Legislative Committees

This report presents the most comprehensive and accessible database on human capital and other staffing trends in Congress’s committees, and will be a valuable resource for congressional reformers on the Hill, in think tank and policy spheres, and in academia.

This report presents particularly robust and insightful data on the gender pay gap in Congress, each chamber, and every committee, showing the vastly differing experiences that men and women face on the Hill (even when performing the same job). Of note, men outnumber women in Senate committee staff by a staggering 12 percentage points, and male staffers on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee earned nearly 35% more in 2017 than female counterparts.

Despite public posturing that members want to reassert the legislative branch’s policymaking role, even in areas like foreign policy, the fastest-growing staffing assignment in congressional committees is communications. This reflects the growing sense that an important part of Congress’s function is shaping public debate, and the use of Congress for partisan messaging ends.