Bernie Sanders on low end of earners among candidates

As you might expect of a candidate who labels himself a Democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders is at the low end of earners among candidates for president in 2016.

But the Vermont independent, a candidate for the Democratic nomination, earns a $174,000 Senate salary that puts him among the top 5 percent of Americans in income.

The Sanders campaign produced a new financial disclosure form Thursday, nearly identical to one it filed with the Federal Elections Commission on May 29. It shows Sanders got less than $2,000 total for three speaking appearances since last fall, including $850 for appearing on the HBO talk show “Real Time With Bill Maher.” Sanders reported donating the speaking fees to Vermont charities.

He also got a $5,000-a-year pension from the city of Burlington for his time as mayor.

Sanders also listed 28 retirement fund accounts belonging to his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, worth between $194,000 and $735,000. The disclosure forms only ask for a range of values, such as between $1,001 and $15,000.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley and his wife, Catherine Curran O’Malley, last year earned a solid $270,000 in wages, plus a $61,000 pension from his time as mayor and council member in Baltimore. O’Malley is competing with Sanders to be the liberal alternative to the overwhelming Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Both men’s earning paled in comparison to Clinton’s. Her May financial disclosure form, showed that she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, earned more than $25 million in speaking fees since the beginning of 2014.

Republished with permission of The Associated Press.