New emails show Clinton camp worried journalists would notice 'huge' gender pay gap at Clinton Foundation

Hillary Clinton has branded herself as the equal pay candidate, but the Clinton Foundation doesn't have such a stellar record on the issue.

In fact, high-ranking women at the charitable organization earned an average of $81,000 less than men in similar positions, according to the foundation's public 990 tax forms for the year 2014, which were highlighted late Friday by WikiLeaks.

Hillary Clinton (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The list included four women, who averaged $210,000 in total pay, and nine men, who averaged $291,000 in total pay. Though several of the men did outrank the women on staff, female employees earned 72 cents for every dollar male staffers received.

That number is less than the national average of 79 cents to every dollar, which Clinton frequently cites in her "equal pay for equal work" pitches. The "huge discrepancies" are so, well, "huge" that internal emails revealed the campaign was concerned journalists might take notice.

"There are huge discrepancies, and it wouldn't surprise me if they went here next," Ian Mandel, a public relations expert advising the Clinton campaign, warned in an email to campaign manager Robby Mook and Tony Carrk, research director at Hillary for America.

Clinton camp, which pushes equal pay, was concerned journalists would notice the "huge discrepancies" in @ClintonFdn pay for women, men pic.twitter.com/oky6iApWXt

— Tré Goins-Phillips (@tregp)

October 22, 2016

The pay gap was first noticed in February 2015, according to WikiLeaks.

The discrepancies in pay were not only in 2014, either. According to the foundation's 2013 financial filings, the gap was even wider then, with the highest-paying women earning only 63 cents for every dollar earned by men.

And, based on emails stolen by WikiLeaks, the gap may have — at least in 2011 — impacted all 62 of the organization's employees, 36 of whom were women. At that time, women earned an average of 89 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.

The revelations found in this latest batch of emails are at odds with the message the Democratic presidential nominee has been promoting all election season. "The failure to ensure equal pay for women also impacts families and the broader economy... it devalues the work that women do," she said in April.

Foundation President Donna Shalala, apparently trying to get ahead of the issue, posted a statement in a blog post earlier this week, calling the pay discrepancy reports "inaccurate."

"Recent allegations on pay discrepancies at the Clinton Foundation are inaccurate," she wrote Tuesday. "These calculations are based only on a handful of salaries that do not provide an accurate portrayal of the leadership and staff at Clinton Foundation."