Secretary highlighted by Paul Ryan for her $1.50 pay bump suggests Ryan didn't 'read the whole article'

Secretary Julia Ketchum talks about her pay bump
(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/CBS News)

On Saturday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) tweeted an Associated Press article about workers finding modest bumps in their paychecks due to the new tax law he championed, and he highlighted the story of a Pennsylvania high school secretary who discovered an extra $1.50 in each paycheck, or $78 a year. Since that's considerably less than what the wealthy (not to mention corporations) get in the tax bill, critics pounced and Ryan pretty quickly deleted the tweet, which had already been screengrabbed and gone viral. CBS News' David Begnaud tracked down the secretary, Julia Ketchum, and asked her about her newfound notoriety.

"The paragraph above me, my quote, and the paragraph below my quote — those people got hundreds more and I got a $1.50 per paycheck more," Ketchum said, en route to a field trip. "So it shows me he may not have read the whole article."

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Ketchum took the whole episode in stride, though, and said that while she was "really surprised" Ryan highlighted her comment, she wasn't opposed to the extra cash. "A dollar-fifty's a dollar-fifty, I'm not going to — I noticed it," she told Begnaud. "I watch my finances and I noticed it, so that was good. I was pleasantly surprised because it went up, it did not go down."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.