Kamala Harris Lies About The Majority of Women Being Minimum Wage Workers

Kamala Harris was fact checked by both the Washington Post and PolitiFact for making a false statement during Monday night’s CNN town hall. Harris stated that “the majority of women are minimum wage workers:”

Harris’ statement was incorrect, as the Washington Post explains:

“We instantly can see there’s something fishy here because of the census data on median earnings, used to calculate the pay-equity statistic. The median earnings figure for female workers was $40,760. The median is the middle value, with an equal number of full-time workers earning more and earning less. So already you can see that half of female workers make more than $40,760.”

“And, as Harris noted in her remarks, a minimum wage worker makes about $15,000 a year, assuming a 40-hour workweek. That’s far below $40,760…The Bureau of Labor Statistics further confirms this.”

Read the Q&A:

Audience Member: Good evening, senator. Through my studies as a politics and society major at UNH Manchester I’ve learned women in our country face very real inequalities. What do you plan to do as president to level the playing field and empower working women?

Kamala Harris: On day one we need to pass the equal rights amendment. We also need to speak louder about the realities of the facts, just as you’ve done now and thank you for your leadership on this. Because it is just something that has to be acknowledged and dealt with. Women are paid on average 77% to the dollar. And then if you look at African-American women and Latinas, even less for doing the same work. You look at the fact that we have a real battle in this country around minimum wage and the need to increase minimum wage. We should understand minimum wage is minimum standard of living but federal minimum wage is $7.25 averaging $15,000 a year and then the majority of women are minimum wage workers.