In a column from USA Today, Carolyn Osorio, a self-proclaimed Hillary fan, stated that she thinks Clinton could do more for the millennials the candidate claims to be fighting for. Osorio applied for and was given a job as an intern for Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign, but, as a surprised Osorio learned, she would not be compensated.
“I couldn’t believe my ears. I did not apply as a routine volunteer but as a fellow. Its application process with an elaborate screening and interview process was now revealed to be an ugly lie. If Hillary hopes to inspire young people, to prove she understands our interests she should offer substance to earn our votes,” writes Osorio in her column.
In 2013, a new log was added to the Clinton intern fire with the release of the Clinton Foundation’s Form 990, revealing that the Foundation spent $29.9 million on its workers’ salaries, but $0 in compensation for the nearly 100 interns it hosts each year. New York’s minimum wage of $8.75 would mean paying the mostly college students virtually nothing, compared to the massive amount of money the Foundation already has. According to the 990, the foundation has nearly $300 million in net assets.
Osorio, who believes Clinton could do nothing wrong, was appalled and offended when she learned that the former secretary of state wants other people to pay their interns, but won’t pay her own.
“It was like discovering that Santa wasn’t real,” writes Osorio about learning that Hillary “perpetuates the exploitation of unpaid interns.”
Should Osorio apply for a paid position and find herself accepted, she might want to prepare herself for this: Clinton paid women $0.72 for every dollar she paid men when a senator.
Osorio’s experience with the Clinton camp, she writes, is one that many young Democrat voters will have when they discover Hillary’s hypocrisy, and “it doesn’t bode well that a campaign seeking younger voters would callously overlook my generation’s biggest struggle: employment.”
Osorio raises questions about what the Clinton campaign will do to address this issue, since it is sure to affect the votes cast by young democrats, whose largest selling point is jobs they’ve struggled to find since Bush left office.
“What exactly are Hillary Clinton’s priorities and how do I change them?” asks Osorio at the conclusion of her article.