Ways to lose to Trump: Call him poor

The 2016 presidential candidates and their spouses hang out at a wedding.

The 2016 presidential candidates and their spouses at a wedding in 2005.

Who says Hillary Clinton isn’t the best candidate to address wealth inequality? Racists and bros, mostly—the rest of us know better. Here’s the presumptive Democratic nominee telling the New York Times that she’s open to considering Mark Cuban or another successful businessperson as her vice president:

“Businesspeople, especially successful businesspeople, who are really successful — as opposed to pretend successful — I think, have a lot to offer,” said Mrs. Clinton, whose campaign has begun taunting Mr. Trump with a #PoorDonald hashtag on Twitter, suggesting that he is not nearly as wealthy as he claims. Mr. Trump has cited an audit by the Internal Revenue Service as his reason for keeping his tax returns private.

Clinton supporters on Twitter have begun circulating the claim that Donald Trump is not a multi-billionaire, as he says, and that his net worth is actually less than $100 million. That would put him below the Clintons’ estimated worth of $110 million, nearly all of which they made after Bill became president. Surely, voters will flock to Hillary once they start thinking of her as the richer candidate.

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Retail federation says rise in overtime threshold “demotes millions”

Kombat! Kids: How many black men can you find in this image search for "white collar employees?"

How many black men can you find in this image search for “white collar employees?”

Today, the Labor Department will release new regulations that raise the salary threshold for overtime pay to $47,476 a year. Since 2004, salaried employees have been ineligible for overtime if they made more than $23,660. This threshold established the terms of work recognizable to people around my age: 40 hours a week when you interview, 50 to 60 hours a week for the same pay once you’ve got the job. Raising the threshold will increase the number of salaried employees who get paid extra for working more, forcing employers to either hire more people or better compensate those they already have. It also reduces the number of people who are considered “management” in the Labor Department rubric. Perhaps that’s what prompted David French of the National Retail Federation to say this:

“This is an extreme revision in the white-collar threshold. By executive fiat, the Department of Labor is effectively demoting millions of workers.”

It’s the kind of demotion where they get paid more. If French ever loses his job at NRF, he’s a shoe-in for a position at the National Board of Sophistry.

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