Hillary Clinton appears to be taking a populist approach to economic issues ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The now-official Democratic candidate sent an e-mail to supporters following her campaign announcement that lamented the fact that regular Americans currently face economic difficulties “when the average CEO makes about 300 times what the average worker makes,” according to Reuters.
Unfortunately for Clinton, she paints herself quite the hypocrite when complaining about CEO pay. After all, the former secretary of State has made a career out of charging universities hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for speeches.
For example, Clinton charged the University of Buffalo $275,000 to deliver a one-hour speech in October 2013 and demanded $300,000 from the University of California at Los Angeles for remarks in March 2014.
She was particularly scrutinized for demanding $225,000 from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas for her remarks at the university’s foundation dinner last fall in addition to requesting the school pay for a private plane, a $1,250 transcript of her speech, and suites for she and her staff.
While American CEOs may have earned an average of $11.7 million in 2013 according to a report last year, Hillary would have to deliver less than 40 speeches at a $300,000 price tag each to generate the same amount of money.
Of course, Clinton isn’t personally boosting her finances with the money she receives from speeches. She donates the funds to the Clinton Foundation, and as such still benefits from the large checks when they contribute to the growth of the charity she and her family started.
And, Hillary’s speeches aren’t her only big pay days. The former first lady received an $8 million book advance for her first memoir “Living History” in 2000, though the sum wasn’t enough to offset the Clintons’ “dead broke” status upon leaving the White House.
Hillary also received an estimated $14 million book advance for her 2014 memoir “Hard Choices.” The Democratic presidential hopeful is estimated to have a net worth of up to $50 million.
Clinton is no stranger to the political spotlight, and thus she knows that running for president is almost entirely about the optics.
Optically, Hillary Clinton denouncing CEO pay while having collected millions in paid speech fees and book advances doesn’t look good.
