How much does the president of the United States make?

Today, January 20, 2021, Joe Biden takes office in the White House and officially begins his term as 46th president of the United States of America. Among the many curiosities that raise this role from extreme prestige, there is the economic one: how much he earns the US president, who for many is the most powerful man in the world? We have tried to take stock of this aspect a bit.

HOW THE SALARY OF THE US PRESIDENT CHANGES
Of course it cannot be the president himself who establishes his remuneration.

It is in fact the Congress to do so and a first curiosity concerns the changes – up to now always upwards – of the figure in question. Yes, because the salary increase never affects the president in office, but applies from the next one, as specified in Article II, section 1, clause 7 of the American Constitution.

The last “salary adjustment” was passed in early 2001 when Bill Clinton was in the White House; it was therefore his successor, who took over the same year, George W. Bush, who received exactly double the salary of his predecessor. In 2001, in fact, the presidential salary passed from $ 200,000 to $ 400,000 a year. Since 1789, the year in which George Washington, the first president of the USA, was elected, there have been only five increases in total.

Is $ 400,000 a lot or a little for a role with enormous responsibilities and which requires total dedication? Hard to say, but according to CNBC such a salary is only about1% of the US population and it is approx ten times the average salary of an American worker who is around 45 thousand dollars a year.

BEYOND THE SALARY …
There’s more: other items form the bouquet of benefits reserved for the president of the United States. Like his predecessors, in fact, Joe Biden will be able to count annually on an expense fund of $ 50,000, a travel account of $ 100,000 (tax free) and one of $ 19,000 to devote to leisure and free time. In short, not nothing economic pluses to which are added further benefits, including the White House (in gallery at the beginning of the article you will find some details on the presidential residence).

SOMETIMES THE GOOD COMES LATER
From a purely economic point of view, several presidents have reaped the best results after the presidency. Yes, because all previous White House tenants remain on the US payroll and receive one $ 200,000 annual pension to which is added a health insurance policy. Thinking about it, considering that the load of institutional commitments is enormously lighter, we can say that the best from this point of view comes at the end of the mandate.

Also because in addition to retirement, many former US presidents earn astronomical figures with books (that of Obama, A Promised Land, has recently been published in Italy by Garzanti) and conferences. According to CNN, Clinton would have earned more 75 million dollars thanks to public speeches given after the presidency.

WHAT THE US PRESIDENTS DON’T GET
Curiously, theclothing: no president is provided with dresses, shirts or sweaters. They have to buy everything out of their own pockets and generally, as Business Insider explains, they don’t even accept them as gifts from designers; the few exceptions in this sense concern extraordinary occasions and after wearing the dress given, this is destined for the national archive.

president hearted
There has been no shortage of presidents in the history of the United States who have donated part of their salaries. Among these is Donald Trump who would have diverted his salary to some departments of state, including that of Health and that of Transportation. Before him Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy donated part of their presidential income to charities.