Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), who’s also a U.S. Senator, is one of the key supporters of legislation calling for a nationwide hourly minimum wage of $15. But until that legislation passes, he’s free to keep paying his Senate interns $12 per hour.
Sanders recently introduced the “Pay Workers a Living Age Act,” a bill that would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to at least $15 per hour within five years of its becoming law.
But it’s hard to exemplify your ideals sometimes. In advertising to hire additional Senate interns this week, Sanders’ own web page offers a pay rate of $12 per hour – despite the fact that he is allowed to exercise his own discretion and pay them more.
Sanders, though, isn’t alone among Senate Democrats who pay their interns little or nothing. A 2013 report in The Atlantic found that Republican Senators, on the whole, outpaced their Democratic peers when it comes to compensating interns.
“[E]mbarrassingly for [Nevada Democrat Harry] Reid and the blue team, the vast majority of senators who do pay are Republicans,” The Atlantic wrote. “Of those 35 senators [who compensate their interns], only 11 are Democrats – meaning almost 80 percent of Dems require volunteer participation (not counting Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.)”
At least Sanders is keeping company with the few Senators who try to pay their interns something – even if that “something” is limited by pesky market forces.
The post Sanders wants $15 minimum wage, but that’s not what he pays his interns appeared first on Personal Liberty®.
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