Government's $15 Minimum Wage Advocates Aren't Paying Their Interns

From FEE.org (July 10):

Almost all of the lawmakers who co-sponsored a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour also hired unpaid interns to supplement their staffs, a survey shows.

A report from the Employment Policies Institute reveals that 174 of the bill’s 184 co-sponsors, or 95 percent, hire interns who are paid nothing.

“It’s hypocritical to rally for a $15 minimum wage when these lawmakers don’t pay their own entry-level employees a cent,” said Michael Saltsman, managing director of the Employment Policies Institute.

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The study counted members of Congress who advertised a limited number of stipend positions as having paid interns, even if they also use unpaid interns. So the 95 percent figure is conservative.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, a leading voice in the calls for a $15 minimum wage, is the only senator to offer an hourly wage to interns, the study found. However, Sanders’ office offers $12 an hour while he proposes $15 in the private sector.

Progressive lawmakers will argue that paying interns more will limit the number of available opportunities, the Employment Policies Institute notes, yet don’t recognize this same concern in the private sector. [read more]

I looked at the pdf of the list of Congressmen who don’t pay or pay very little to their interns and not one is a Republican. I repeat not one is a Republican. A bunch of hypocrites. So much for the little guy. Then again the Dems in Congress think they are elites and elites don’t have to abide by the rules they make for the common people or as they call everyone else--the masses. Why don’t they have to abide by the rules they make you might ask? Because they believe they are special.