Fact check: How does the presidential salary compare to other government officials?

Executive summary — Who earns what in Washington, and where the president stands

The President of the United States receives a statutory salary of $400,000 per year, which is larger than the base pay for most other senior federal officials, including Members of Congress and most Supreme Court justices, but smaller than the president’s total compensation when allowances are counted (including travel, entertainment and expense budgets) ^{[1] [2]}. Presidential pay has been adjusted only a handful of times since George Washington, and presidents commonly have additional non-salary budgets and, in recent presidencies, publicized decisions to donate the statutory salary ^{[3] [4]}.

1. The headline number: Why $400,000 matters and how fixed it is

The statutory annual salary for the U.S. president is $400,000, a figure set by Congress and unchanged in recent years except for rare legislative adjustments; historical summaries note only five increases since Washington’s presidency, underlining that the amount is the product of deliberate legislative choices rather than automatic indexing to inflation ^[3]. This $400,000 salary is the baseline legal wage, but public discussion frequently focuses on whether presidents accept, redirect, or donate that payment, which affects perceptions of compensation though not the statutory amount itself ^{[2] [4]}.

2. Beyond salary: How allowances and perquisites change the picture

Presidential compensation commonly includes additional allowances for travel, entertainment, and official expenses that are separate from the statutory salary; contemporary reporting estimates those extra budgets added roughly $169,000 or more to the president’s annual compensation in recent years, and some White House accounting of executive pay packages has presented a figure well above $400,000 when those items are included ^{[2] [5]}. The total reported compensation can therefore appear much larger than the headline salary, though those funds are earmarked for official duties rather than personal income ^{[5] [2]}.

3. How the president’s base pay compares to Congress and the vice president

Members of Congress have a statutory baseline pay of $174,000 per year for rank-and-file lawmakers, which is substantially below the presidential base salary; leadership posts in Congress earn more, but the congressional scale remains beneath the president’s $400,000 figure ^[1]. The vice president and cabinet secretaries fall between those ranges depending on office and seniority; overall, the president’s base salary is among the highest statutory federal salaries, though some judicial salaries approach it ^[1].

4. The judiciary and the ceiling: Supreme Court pay in context

The highest judicial pay lags the presidential baseline but is substantial: the Chief Justice and Associate Justices earn in the low-to-mid $300,000s (with reported figures around $317,500 for the Chief Justice and $303,600 for associate justices as of January 2025), leaving the president’s $400,000 as the top executive statutory salary but not an order of magnitude higher than top judicial pay ^[1]. This proximity highlights that top federal salaries cluster in the high hundreds of thousands, with the president’s statutory pay at the peak of that cluster ^[1].

5. White House staff and cabinet pay: High earners but under the president’s total package

White House staff salaries can be substantial for senior aides; reporting identified top White House staffers earning about $225,700 and noted that when you aggregate salary plus allowances the president’s reported compensation can exceed $500,000 in some public disclosures, reflecting both staff payroll and presidential expense allowances ^{[5] [6]}. The administration’s internal pay list shows senior aides and cabinet-level officers earn less than the presidential statutory salary, while the president’s total official budget remains larger due to extra allowances ^[5].

6. Special circumstances: Shutdowns, donations, and continuity of pay

During government shutdowns, statutory pay rules have meant elected officials including the president and Members of Congress continue to receive salaries, while many federal employees can face delayed pay or furlough—an important structural difference in compensation continuity ^[7]. Separately, individual presidents have sometimes donated their $400,000 salary to federal agencies or charitable causes; such donations affect public perception but do not change the statutory salary or the additional allowances available for official duties ^{[2] [4]}.

7. Long-term trend: Purchasing power, political optics, and who benefits

Congressional base pay has not kept pace with inflation—reporting shows lawmakers had no pay increase for many years, producing a decline in real value—whereas the presidential salary has been adjusted only infrequently, creating periods where purchasing power diverges across offices and driving political debate about compensation fairness and recruitment for public service ^{[8] [3]}. The practical effect is that headline comparisons (e.g., $400,000 vs. $174,000) capture statutory differences but understate the role of allowances, donated salaries, and political choices that shape actual take-home and public perception ^{[1] [2]}.