During Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention, she claimed:

“As mayor I took a voluntary pay cut, which didn’t thrill my husband…”

Talking Points Memo wrote:

While Palin did appear to get a pay cut ordinance passed upon entering, several years later her salary had actually gone up to the point where it ended up thousands of dollars higher than it was just before she took office, local press reports at the time show.

The next day, Talking Points Memo wrote:

Now we have records from the city of Wasilla that confirm this. Here is the trajectory of her pay, according to the records:

Upon taking office on 10/14/1996: $64.200

01/01/1997: Pay was cut from $64,200 to $61,200

06/01/1998: Pay rose from $61,200 to $68,000

07/01/1999: Pay cut again from $68,000 to $66,000

10/01/1999: Pay rose from $66,000 to $68,000

From late 1999 until the end of her mayoralty in 2002, records show, her pay stayed at $68,000 — higher than the $64,200 it was when she started out, and significantly higher than the $61,200 she initially cut it to.

….

This isn’t another Bridge to Nowhere. But it does fit a pattern here, where Palin burnishes her reform credentials by describing intentions as realities or otherwise boiling down the record into easily-digestible sound-bites that at best are half-truths, as this latest one has now proven to be.

The same day, Real Clear Politics noted:

Did (Talking Points Memo) take inflation into account? According to any number of inflation calculators out there, if Palin’s original $64,200 was adjusted for inflation throughout her tenure, she would have left office making around $72,000. As it was, she left office making $68,000. Just to make sure, Wasilla’s city council confirmed that Palin’s salary numbers are not adjusted for inflation.

What Real Clear Politics doesn’t point out to be fair to Talking Points Memo is that most people don’t say their pay was cut because it didn’t keep up with inflation. If someone says “My pay was cut,” they mean it was lowered, not that it didn’t keep up with inflation.