In other news, divisive, dishonest president who lied about your healthcare and his meeting with the Pope finds something else to lie about.
If Barack Obama really cared about the “equal pay” issue more than he cared about drumming up an issue for the politics of it, he would have seen to it that his own White House female staff make the same money for the same work before he launched today’s “Equal Pay Day” festivities. But he didn’t. Women in his own White House still make less than the boys.
And only a few years after the blogs noticed, so does the New York Times. All the news that’s fit to print…eventually. We’ll get around to it. Honest.
As Obama Spotlights Gender Gap in Wages, His Own Payroll Draws Scrutiny
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday will call attention to what he has said is an “embarrassment” in America: the fact that women make, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns.
But critics of the administration are eager to turn the tables and note that Mr. Obama’s White House fares only slightly better. A study released in January showed that female White House staff members make on average 88 cents for every dollar a male staff member earns.
How embarrassing.
Time for a spin cycle!
Jay Carney, the president’s press secretary, said the statistics for White House staff members reflect the fact that women fill more lower-level positions than men. But he said that women and men in the same positions at the White House are paid the same, and that many of the women hold senior positions.
“Men and women in equivalent roles here earn equivalent salaries,” Mr. Carney said. “Some of the most senior positions in the White House are filled by women, including national security adviser, homeland security adviser, White House counsel, communications director, senior adviser, deputy chief of staff.”
He said that the 88-cent statistic was misleading because it aggregates the salaries of White House staff members at all levels, including the lowest levels, where women outnumber men.
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner, said the 77-cent statistic that Mr. Obama has often cited was misleading for the same reason, because it aggregates salaries for the American workforce. “The wage gap is real, but the White House does itself a disservice — and embarrasses itself in the process — by grasping for misleading statistics that don’t tell the whole story,” Mr. Buck said.
Obama’s team got caught playing fast and loose with numbers when they launched this gambit. Oopsies. And of course, no one was fired for misleading the American press and people. That’s a job requirement with this White House.
The upshot of what the Democrats really want out of all this (other than an issue for the mid-terms and something besides Obamacare, the economy, Russia, etc to talk about): More regulations on businesses, more excuses for trial lawyers to sue.
This week, Democrats in the Senate are to begin considering the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would add new regulations on how private companies pay their employees.
This is who the Democrats are. They attack businesses for political fun and profit.
h/t Just One Minute
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