Politicians are the Worst Kind of Hypocrits

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I don't normally get overtly political, but this kind of hypocrisy (which happens routinely across the political spectrum, by the way) just demands a response.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK/DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - "Hillary Clinton, under pressure from the left wing of her Democratic Party to aggressively campaign against income inequality, voiced concern about the hefty paychecks of some corporate executives in an email to supporters.

Striking a populist note, Clinton, who announced on Sunday she was running for president in 2016, said American families were still facing financial hardship at a time 'when the average CEO makes about 300 times what the average worker makes.' "

Let’s do some arithmetic, shall we?

"Full professors at public doctoral institutions made $126,981 in salary in the 2013-2014 academic year, and instructors at those schools made $50,032."  Washington Post Apr 7, 2014

Assume a teaching load of 4 courses per year. That’s 4 courses at 3 hours per week for 14 weeks or 168 hours lecturing in front of students per year. For many college teachers it will be substantially higher. But let’s err on the side of making the hourly wage as high as possible.

For a full professor this is $755 per hour, for an instructor this is $298. For a lowly grad student the hourly wage might be as high as $30 per hour (again on the high side).

Suppose we think of the payment per day, rather than lecture hour. With a 9-month contract this is $470 per day for the full professor and $185 per day for the instructor. This is compensation for all activities not, just teaching. And again we err on the side of generosity since a 9-month contract is a minimum.

"One of the first episodes in the speaking-fee genre stemmed from reports in June that Clinton would receive $225,000 to speak at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas." Talking Points Memo Dec 1, 2014

Assuming a one-hour speech, the hourly rate ratio for Hillary Clinton vs. a full professor is 298:1 and it's 755:1 for the instructor.

Assuming the speech is really a full day’s work the ratios are 478:1 and 1216:1

So, does she REALLY think the 300:1 ratio of CEO to employee compensation is unconscionable?


UPDATE:  The Wall Street Journal says the following http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hillary-pay-ratio-1429054250.