Former Trump campaign employee: Women were paid half as much as men

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

published 1 February 2016

Former Donald Trump campaign organizer Elizabeth Mae Davidson filed a sex discrimination complaint Thursday alleging that men on the campaign were being paid nearly twice as much as women doing the same jobs, The New York Times reports. Davidson, 26, who was fired from her post as an organizer in Davenport, Iowa earlier this month, says that while she was paid $2,000 a month, her male counterparts earned between $3,500 and $4,000.

Davidson also accused the campaign of ignoring her requests to speak at rallies while granting the opportunity to men, and said that Trump once made a comment about her looks, telling her and another female colleague that they "could do a lot of damage" with their appearances.

Trump's campaign has dismissed the complaints as coming from a "disgruntled former part-time employee" and said her accusations were both "without merit" and in violation of her contract. As for Trump's comment about Davidson's looks, he says he has no recollection of the incident. "That is not the worst thing that could be said," Trump told The New York Times. "But I never said it. It's not in my vocabulary."