Last week, a conservative newspaper called The Washington Free Beacon accused Hillary Clinton of contributing to gender inequality in the workplace. According to the paper’s claims, when Hillary worked in the U.S. Senate, she not only had a staff primarily composed of males, but she also paid her female staffers 72 cents to each dollar that she paid her male staffers.
During her years in the U.S. Senate, the Free Beacon claims that the median annual salary for a female working in Hillary’s office was $15,708.38 less than that of a man, a number they say they received from an analysis of data compiled from official Senate expenditure reports.
However, without knowing specifically what each employee’s duties were and how much experience each of them had, it’s difficult to judge any actual pay discrimination. Refinery29 reported on the same issue (press secretary Nick Merrill told the publication that “It’s a ridiculous proposition”), adding that Hillary’s Senate staff was half or more than half comprised of women during her terms in office, and that “during those terms she repeatedly sponsored legislation that supported an equal-rights agenda.”
Whether the Free Beacon‘s allegations turn out to be true or not, it’s clear that nationally, changes need to be made to create gender equality in the workplace in precisely the way that Hillary has always pushed for in her political past. Hopefully, Hillary will be one of the first politicians to actually make those changes happen, but only time will tell.