What a pay raise!!!

That's a hefty pay raise if you ask me! Reporting in The Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Ralph R. Reiland debunks what Michelle Obama told a crowd in Zanesville, OH:

There's not a lot of money in Zanesville. Nearly a quarter of the Ohio town's population, 22.4 percent, is living below the poverty line, including 32.3 percent of those under 18 years of age.[...]

Still, Michelle Obama stopped by the other day during a campaign visit and warned the locals to not go for the big money.

"We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we're asking young people to do," she told a group of women at a day-care center. "Don't go into corporate America… But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond."[...]

What Michelle Obama didn't mention during the Zanesville visit is that she's done pretty well by helping herself to a sizeable slice of "helping industry" money at the University of Chicago Hospital.

Employed as vice president for community affairs, Mrs. Obama's annual compensation jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office.

That's a $195,052 raise -- not bad for someone who looks down her nose at the "money-making industry."

All told, the total income declared by the Obama household on the couple's 2006 income tax return, figuring his Senate salary, book royalties and her compensation from sitting on corporate boards, was $991,296 -- again, not bad for sacrificing themselves in the "helping industry."[...]

It's doubtful that many in the audience could feel Mrs. Obama's pain. The median income for female workers in Zanesville last year was $20,142.