CEO Tells ‘Daily Show’ The ‘Mentally Retarded’ Might Be Worth $2 An Hour

Comedy Central

Nothing quite divides the rich and the poor like minimum wage issues. Those with the lowest incomes always seem to want more, with Obama now calling for a 40 percent increase to bring the minimum wage up to $10.10 per hour.

The Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee took a look at the other side of the issue: Just as much as low-income individuals want higher pay, there are filthy rich CEOs who just don’t want to pay larger salaries.

Take, for example, Peter Schiff. He’s the extremely conservative and rich CEO of Euro Pacific Capital. And if it were up to him, we’d do away with that pesky minimum wage altogether. “If we eliminated the minimum wage law then individuals would be free to accept jobs at whatever pay they’re able to get,” he told Bee.

Bee then requested, “Paint me a picture of a person whose work would be worth $2 an hour.”

Schiff’s reply? “You know somebody who might be? Maybe somebody who is, uh, you know, what’s the politically correct word? Uh, you know, uh, for, uh, you know, mentally retarded?”

He added, “I’m not going to say that we’re all created equal… you’re worth what you’re worth.”

And  in case you’re wondering, Schiff is worth about $70 million. Assuming he sticks to a typical work week, his $17 million salary works out to $35,000 per hour, nearly 5,000 times the current minimum wage.

Watch the full interview between Bee and Schiff below.