Good news for Hillary Clinton fans and supporters. PolitiFact took a hard look at her campaign claim that “top hedge fund managers make more than all kindergarten teachers combined” and found it to be true.
What she said:
“While many of you are working multiple jobs to make ends meet,” she said, “you see the top 25 hedge fund managers making more than all of America’s kindergarten teachers combined. And, often paying a lower tax rate.
According to PolitiFact, 158,000 kindergarten teachers made on aggregate $8.5 billion last year. Click the link for some in-depth descriptions of districtwide pay scales and salary differentials between private and public teachers. Meanwhile, the top 25 hedge fund managers are estimated to have earned $11.62 billion in compensation last year — less than half of what they earned the year before.
This is a big improvement for Clinton over a previous somewhat similar claim (that hedge fund managers “pay less in taxes than nurses and truck drivers”), which PolitiFact rated false.