Fair pay advocate Hillary Clinton has been labelled a hypocrite, defends ‘free coffee’ advert

THE fair pay advocate who has been branded a hypocrite for using unpaid interns, lured by “free coffee, great views, the chance to make history”.

WHEN politicians say one thing but do another, they’re going to be called out.

But the Democrat vying for the honour of being the first female president of the United States of America is digging in her heels over what many see as an act of hypocrisy.

The New York Post has slammed Ms Clinton for relying on unpaid interns to steamroll her way to office, in an editorial which points to her comments two years ago.

“Businesses have taken advantage of unpaid internships to an extent that it is blocking the opportunities for young people to move on into paid employment,” Ms Clinton is quoted as having stated at a UCLA lecture in 2013.

“More businesses need to move their so-called interns to employees.”

While the Post said it does not oppose unpaid internships, which “let kids gain the experience, skills and contacts to land a paying gig — or to realise the industry’s not for them”, the publication called out Ms Clinton’s “hypocrisy” and apparent belief that “the rules for everyone else don’t apply to her”.

The former secretary of states’s campaign team tweeted yesterday that the perks for her unpaid interns included “free coffee, great views, the chance to make history”.

Interning at #Hillary2016 HQ in NYC: ✔️ Free coffee ✔️ Great views ✔️ The chance to make history Apply today → http://t.co/519xG6Q5h2

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 16, 2015

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton drinks a cup of coffee while visiting the Timor Coffee Cooperative in Dili, East Timor Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in East Timor to offer the small half-island nation support as it ends its reliance on international peacekeepers. (AP Photo/Jim Watson, Pool)

The tweet came as Ms Clinton spruiks a 10-year, $350 billion plan to make college more affordable and ease student debt burdens for graduates. It prompted an outpouring of scorn from Twitter users:

@HillaryClinton coffee is always free at an office. I want a president that knows that.

— sp0ka (@sp0ka) August 16, 2015

@HillaryClinton How about you PAY them? Your campaign isn't exactly hurting for money.

— Zachary Druckrey (@zdruck07) August 16, 2015

Clinton campaign interns must be enrolled at college or have immediate plans for graduate study.

Would-be intern Carolyn Osorio blasted the program in an opinion piece for USA Today,

Ms Osorio, who described herself as “the high school girl who slept in a Hillary for President T-shirt for most of 2007”, said she applied for a position on the Hillary for America team and “couldn’t have been more excited — until I was told I’d have to move to Nevada and work full time on my own dime”.

“Finding out that Hillary perpetuates the exploitation known as unpaid internships was like discovering that Santa wasn’t real,” she wrote.

“Internships, once a prestigious foot-in-the-door experience, have increasingly been shown to be an abusive way for employers to gain free labour. I had bad experiences at unpaid internships in California and New York. I promised myself when I graduated two years ago to never let anyone do that to me again.”

Mikey Franklin of the Fair Pay Campaign told The Guardianthat all of Ms Clinton’s staffers should be compensated.

“If Secretary Clinton wants to show she’s serious about economic opportunity for young people, that has to start with her campaign,” he said

“It’s wrong that they are not paid, because they are giving their labour.”

Originally published as Fair pay advocate Hillary Clinton has been labelled a hypocrite, defends ‘free coffee’ advert