Carly Fiorina appeared with top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett on MSNBC's Morning Joe and called out the president for his failure to pay women equally in his own White House.
"I am struck by the fact the president hasn't really led in this regard," Fiorina said. "He's not paying women equally by his own measures in his own White House."
Jarrett flatly denied the accusation that the White House is at the forefront of the war on women's pay, saying that "in the White House women do earn equal pay for equal work."
Studies by both the Washington Free Beacon and the Washington Post have shown that the White House has paid its male staffers far more than its female staffers for years. The Obama White House has also been called a "boys' club" that is hostile to women in the workplace.
Fiorina, a highly successful businesswoman and the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, also said that laws already exist today that allow for women to fight against pay discrimination, and that the biggest impediment to women receiving equal pay is labor structures created by unions and government bureaucracies.
"I also think it's just a fact that laws exist on the books today, and if a woman is being discriminated against because of her gender, she should use the full extent of that law," Fiorina said.
"And I am also struck by the fact that the single greatest impediment to equal pay for equal work is this seniority system, which pays not on merit, not on performance, but on time and grade. And who is it who supports the seniority system? Unions, government bureaucracies, the vast majority of constituencies that the Democratic party represents and who support the Democratic party."
The full exchange between Fiorina and Jarrett can be seen here.