John Bel Edwards Exposed As Equal Pay Hypocrite

If Governor John Bel Edwards (D-LA) wants to fix a pay gap, he should start by fixing the one that exists in his own office. Governor Edwards is the accidental Governor, yet now that he’s in a position of authority he has a responsibility to live up to his own rhetoric. New analysis from the Washington Free Beacon shows that on equal pay, Governor Edwards has failed to do that.

In March, Governor Edwards has made a big push to pass a gender discrimination law that would help close Louisiana’s worst in the nation pay gap. Edwards even held an “Equal Pay Summit” on March 10th to call attention to the issue.

But according to an analysis by the Washington Free Beacon, women in the Governor’s office make only 82% of what men make, coming out to a $12,000 difference:

“Salary data obtained through Louisiana’s Department of State Civil Service, however, shows that Edwards has his own gender pay gap, as women working in his office make just 82 cents for each dollar earned by men. The analysis found that the median salary of the 43 women working in Edwards’ office is $55,000, which is $12,000 less than the median salary of $67,000 earned by the 23 men employed there.”

Richard Carbo, Edwards’ spokesman, disputed the figures saying that different positions make different salaries. Yet in doing so Carbo inadvertently highlighted Edwards own hypocrisy on equal pay, according to University of Michigan economics professor Mark Perry, an “expert on wage discrepancies”:

“Mark Perry, a University of Michigan economics professor and expert on wage discrepancies, told the Free Beacon it was hypocritical for Edwards to make excuses for his gender pay gap while accusing Louisiana businesses of discrimination, adding that ‘gender activists can’t have it both ways.’ ‘They like to use the unadjusted pay gap to point to a problem, but when you point to their pay gap they want to do all the adjustments to show that—when adjusted for position, education, experience, and seniority—there isn’t a pay gap,’ Perry said.”

John Bel Edwards has had an awful March. He’s been exposed as a flip-flopper on economic development, Louisiana’s credit was downgraded for the third time under his watch, and America Rising’s effort against him has made news across the state. Now the Free Beacon has shown that if Edwards wants to continue to lecture Louisiana’s businesses on equal pay, he first needs to get his own struggling house in order.