One of the Democratic platforms for candidates running in 2016 has been equal pay for equal jobs between men and women. That platform was spotlighted at the Democratic National Convention, which was held in late July in Philadelphia.  At the convention, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton echoed the call for equal pay. 

However, her calls were met with opposition from Republican circles.

Sharon Day, the co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee from South Florida called out Clinton for doing the exact opposite. Day said this at the Republican National Convention:

"She repeatedly plays the gender card. In fact she boasts ‘deal me in.’ Well, Mrs. Clinton, consider yourself dealt in because as a senator you paid women less than the men in your office."

The team at PolitiFact decided to see if Day's claim was accurate. PolitiFact reporter Joshua Gillin wrote that Day's claim rates MOSTLY FALSE on the Truth-O-Meter. Gillin stated that the claim reaches back to 2002.

"We took a look at the claim, and it's all based on a Washington Free Beacon analysis," wrote Gillin. "They went back to 2002 and compared the median salaries for men and women, and found that there was a fairly sizable gap there. The problem is, though, that the data they used didn't skew enough for how long someone worked on the job, or whether they took time off during that span."

Gillin notes that many Washington staffers take time off to work on campaigns.

"You have to remember that Congressional staffers, Senate staffers in this case, often take time off from their government job to work on campaigns," wrote Gillin. "The rules say that you can't do campaign work while doing government work, so those staffers have to either quit or take a leave of absence to do campaign work, and this was true when Hillary Clinton was the senator from New York."

Gillin wrote that the Free Beacon analysis didn't necessarily go into the fine detail needed to differentiate roles, job assignments, and pay rates.

"Buzzfeed actually looked at it, and made adjustments to the analysis to account for those changes in status," stated Gillin. "What they found was that there was hardly any discrepancy at all in salaries between men and women staffers."

Based on adjustments to the research to accurately reflect the employment scenarios for Clinton Senate staffers, PolitiFact gives Day's claim a MOSTLY FALSE rating on the Truth-O-Meter.


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