Latino and Black students account for only 7.9% and 6.7% of paid congressional interns, though they represent 20% and 15% of the undergraduate student population, according to a new report from the non-profit Pay Our Interns.
Latino and Black students, on the other hand, accounted for 7.9 percent and 6.7 percent of paid interns, though they represent 20 percent and 15 percent of the undergraduate student population, respectively.
The report,"Who Congress Pays," also found that nearly 50 percent of paid interns attended private universities — double the amount of undergraduates nationwide. Since Congress does not report race in its workforce, the non-profit looked at 8,500 pages of payroll information between April and September 2019. Researchers then obtained data from a variety of online sources to collect racial demographic information on 3,841 interns. It's the first reporting of how Congress has spent funds allocated to pay interns, according to the report.