Popular US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hit out at Ivanka Trump over her claims that Americans don't want a living wage.
The congresswoman - who has previously worked at a taco stand and as a bartender -asserted in her Tuesday tweet that Americans deserve a living wage as a 'right.'
"As a person who actually worked for tips & hourly wages in my life, instead of having to learn about it 2nd-hand, I can tell you that most people want to be paid enough to live," Ocasio-Cortez said to her millions of Twitter followers.
As a person who actually worked for tips & hourly wages in my life, instead of having to learn about it 2nd-hand, I can tell you that most people want to be paid enough to live.
A living wage isn’t a gift, it’s a right. Workers are often paid far less than the value they create. https://t.co/P5FsQuhCTW
The controversial politician then posted on Twitter a graph showing productivity since 1973 and the staggering rate it has risen in comparison to how stagnant worker pay is.
"In fact, wages are so low today compared to actual worker productivity that they are no longer the reflections of worker value as they used to be," she continued, adding a graph from the Economic Policy Institute to support her statement. "Productivity has grown 6.2x more than pay."
Yesterday, when quizzed on Fox News about Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal proposal and its job guarantee, Trump replied, "I don't think most Americans in their heart want to be given something."
"I've spent a lot of time traveling around this country over the last four years.
"People want to work for what they get, so I think this idea of a guaranteed minimum is not something most people want. They want the ability to be able to secure a job. They want the ability to live in a country where there's the potential for upward mobility."
The disagreement pits the president's daughter against the youngest member of Congress, who is seen as energising the liberal left wing of the Democratic Party.
Ocasio-Cortez, a representative from from New York, is pushing the Green New Deal - a statement of goals and doesn't make specific policy proposals, nor does it specify how it would pay for its ambitious plans.
In fact, wages are so low today compared to actual worker productivity that they are no longer the reflections of worker value as they used to be.
One of its goals is to provide every American with a job and health care.
The plan also aims to slow climate change by ending the reliance on fossil fuels within 10 years; to upgrade power grids and existing buildings for maximum energy efficiency; and to overhaul transportation systems.
Imagine attacking a Jobs Guarantee by saying ‘people prefer to earn money.’
The contest for the Democratic presidential election next year is expected to be a clash between the liberal leanings of Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats like Bernie Sanders versus more moderate Democrats like Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar.
Ivanka Trump dismissed the Democrats' internal battle and said the next presidential race would come down to people being better off than they were before.
Ivanka Trump said: 'People want to work for what they get.' Photo / AP
"I think fundamentally if you ask yourself the question, 'are we better today than we were yesterday or we were two years ago?' The answer is, undoubtedly, yes," Trump said.
"So, as an American, families sitting down and thinking about their financial situation relative to a month ago or a year ago, America is doing very well and it stands in quite sharp contrast to the rest of the world. So, not only are we doing well, much of the world has slowed down in terms of the pace of their growth."
