Fox & Friends accused Bernie Sanders of “hypocrisy” for paying some staffers less than $15 an hour because of his fight to increase the minimum wage, but the fact is that Sanders already pays staffers much more than his minimum wage bill would require if passed.

On Friday morning’s edition of Fox & Friends, the Curvy Couch Klatch discussed a labor dispute between the Sanders campaign and its unionized staffers with what can only be described as glee.

“Bernie Sanders has made it very clear when he is campaigning, he would like to see a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour,” co-host Steve Doocy said, adding, “And yet, the height of hypocrisy, it turns out that he is not paying $15 per hour to his field hires on his campaign.”

“What?” an incredulous Pete Hegseth intoned with the shocked demeanor of a startled Li’L Jon.

“They want $15 an hour, but his campaign says look, they’re unionized, there’s a collective bargaining deal already on the table, and we stand by that,” Doocy said.

“Oh, details,” Hegseth joked, and a laughing Ainsley Earhardt said, “They are using his own rhetoric against him now!”

After playing several clips of Sanders advocating for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, Hegseth — in an excited pitch that registered somewhere north of “BTS is here!” — squealed “This is amazing!”

“Well apparently, somebody in his campaign actually heard him say that, and was like wait a minute we’re not getting 15 an hour!” Doocy said with gleeful laughter.

“I can’t believe that didn’t come across his mind if you’re going to say that, would you think ‘How much am I paying my people?'” Earhardt wondered, then quoted a Washington Post article on the dispute in which Sanders campaign staffers complain of “poverty” wages.

Things went on that way for several more minutes.

Hypocrisy is in the eye of the beholder, but according to the article, average hourly pay for the campaign workers in question is “less than $13” based on a 60-hour workweek. It actually works out to around $11.50 if they work the full 60 hours, at a salary of $36,000 a year.

It turns out, however, that even that rate is significantly greater than what Bernie Sanders’ minimum wage bill would require if it were magically signed into law today. Under the Sanders bill, the minimum wage would increase to $8.55 an hour on the effective date of the law, and go up to $9.85 after a year, which would leave only a few months to go in the presidential campaign.

Sanders’ bill doesn’t eclipse his current minimum staff wage for three years and doesn’t hit $15 until 5 years after the effective date.

To be fair to Fox & Friends, that Washington Post article also fails to mention the specifics of Sanders’ bill, or to fact-check the campaign workers’ claim of “poverty” wages. A person would need to head a family of seven in order for $36,000 a year to qualify as a “poverty” wage.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]