Presidential and Congressional Pay 1789 to 2012 Summary
Presidential Pay 1789 to 2012, in Current and Constant (2012) dollars $2,000,000
$1,750,000
$1,500,000
$1,250,000
$1,000,000
$750,000
$400,000 $500,000
$250,000
$25,000
$50,000
$75,000
$100,000 $200,000
$0 1789 1799 1809 1819 1829 1839 1849 1859 1869 1879 1889 1899 1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009 Current Dollar Yearly Pay
Constant (2012) Dollars
Source of current-dollar presidential pay: Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the Presidency, at http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/fedprssal.html. Data prior to 1913 should be considered approximations. Starting in 1949 presidents also have had a $50,000 per year expense account, worth about $460,000 that year in 2010 dollars. Calculations of inflation-adjusted dollars for 1789-1912 use data from Historical Statistics of the United States Millenial Edition (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Note: The two charts for average presidential pay, chronological and ranked, are located at the end because they print more clearly in portrait format.
© Robert Sahr, Political Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis; e-mail:
[email protected]; online: http://oregonstate.edu/cla/polisci/sahr/sahr
pres-cong_pay_summary
Presidential and Congressional Pay 1789 to 2012 Summary, page 2
Pay of US President in Inflation-adjusted (2012) Dollars and Ratio of Average Yearly Compensation of Top 500 CEO to Pay of President, Selected Years 1960 to 2004 $1,400,000
Current-dollar yearly pay of Presidents: 1960: $100,000; 1970-2000: $200,000; 2001 and later: $400,000
60
$1,111,000 $1,000,000
50
Left
Scale $800,000
40 $714,000 28.9
$600,000
30
$559,000
$400,000
24.0 $486,000
17.5
$327,000 $200,000 1.9
Right Scale
2.7
3.1
1970
1980
$293,000
20
10
$267,000
$0
0 1960
Ratio CEO:President
1992
1996
2000
2004
Presidential pay in dollars of 2012
Source of current dollar top 500 CEO compensation : Business Week, selected issues; the actual number of corporate CEOs used by Business Week to calculate averages varie; for example, in 1999 the number was 362
Ratio of CEO compensation to presidential pay
Yearly presidential pay in constant (2012) dollars
$1,200,000
70 65.5
Presidential and Congressional Pay 1789 to 2012 Summary, page 3
Ratio of Presidential Pay to Median Family Income, 1948 to 2011 35 32.2 30
Read this graph as follows: In 2011, the pay of the President was 6.56 times the median US family income
25
21.2 20
15
11.6 10
5
Presidential Pay: 1948: $75,000 1949-1968: $100,000 1969-2000: $200,000 2001 and later: $400,000
6.56 3.9
0 1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
Source: Census Bureau web site, family income
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
Presidential and Congressional Pay 1789 to 2012 Summary, page 4
Yearly Pay of Members of Congress 1789 to 2012, in Current and Constant (2012) Dollars $300,000 Until 1816 and again 1817 to 1856, members received per diem pay, originally $6 per day (for 1789 this is about $160 in dollars of 2012), sometimes plus a relatively generous travel allowance. These are converted here to yearly rates in the original source. During 1990 and 1991 House and Senate salaries differed slightly; average is shown for those years.
$250,000
$200,000
$150,000
$100,000
$50,000
January 1, 2008: increase to $169,300 from $165,200; 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 $174,000
$0 1789
1799
1809
1819
1829
1839
1849
1859
1869
1879
1889
1899
1909
Congress Pay in Dollars of 2012
1919
1929
1939
1949
1959
1969
Congress Pay
Source of congressional current-dollar pay: Congressional Research Service, Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables, January 15, 2013
1979
1989
1999
2009
Presidential and Congressional Pay 1789 to 2012 Summary, page 5
Ratio of Congress Pay to Median Family Income, 1948 to 2012 6
5.09
5
4 3.61
3 2.85 2
1
0 1948
Read this as follows: In 2012, the pay of members of Congress was 2.85 times the median US family income. Note: the pay of members of Congress has not been increased since 2009
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
Sources: Congressional Reference Service and Census Bureau web site, family income
2000
2004
2008
Presidential and Congressional Pay 1789 to 2012 Summary, page 6
Ratio of Top 500 CEO Compensation to Congress Pay and to Family Median Income and Ratio of Congress Pay to Family Median Income, Selected Years 1960 to 2004 (comparable CEO data not available for later years) 300 275
250 225
Read this as follows: In 2004, the pay of CEOs was about 178 times the median US family income and 61 times the pay of members of Congress; the pay of members of Congress was about 2.9 times the median US family income (note: data are not available for all these elements after 2004)
257
253 227
214
200 178
175 158
150
143
137
125 96
100
93
91
78
78
75 56 43
50
34
30
24
25 8
61
54
49
27
15 4.00
2.28
2.02
3.54
3.16
2.9
2.79
2.78
2.75
2.90
2.94
2.92
0
1960
1970
1980
1992
1996
Ratio CEO:Congress
1998
1999
Ratio CEO:Family
2000
2001
Ratio: Congress:Family
Source of CEO Compensation Data: Business Week, selected years
2002
2003
2004
Presidential and Congressional Pay 1789 to 2012 Summary
Average Pay of US Presidents in Inflation-adjusted Dollars, In Current and Constant (2012) Dollars George Washington John Adams
Notes: This shows average for each president's entire time in office, for example, both nonconsecutive terms for Grover Cleveland, in calculating his average inflation-adjusted pay. When a president died or left office before the end of his term, the calculation assumes that both the president and succeeding vicepresident had that pay for that entire year (so that year "doublecounts"), even if the departure occurred very early or very late in the year. The pay of Presidents Grant and Truman increased between their first and second terms; the second-term current pay is shown.
Thomas Jefferson James Madison James Monroe John Quincy Adams Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren Wm. Henry Harrison John Tyler James K. Polk Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James Garfield Chester Arthur Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt William H. Taft Woodrow Wilson
Highest
Warren Harding Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Richard M. Nixon Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan George H. W. Bush
Lowest
William J. Clinton George W. Bush Barack Obama $-
$250,000
$500,000
$750,000 $1,000,000 $1,250,000 $1,500,000 $1,750,000 $2,000,000
Current Dollars
© Robert Sahr, Political Science, Oregon http://oregonstate.edu/cla/polisci/sahr/sahr
State
University,
Constant (2012) Dollars
Corvallis;
e-mail:
[email protected]; online: pres-cong_pay_summary
Presidential and Congressional Pay 1789 to 2012 Summary, page 8
Presidents Ranked by Inflation-adjusted Pay (2012 $), from Highest to Lowest (rounded to nearest $10,000) $1,790,000
William H. Taft
$1,390,000
Woodrow Wilson
$1,370,000
William McKinley
$1,300,000
Theodore Roosevelt
$1,270,000
Grover Cleveland
$1,250,000
Benjamin Harrison
$1,160,000
Franklin D. Roosevelt
$1,140,000
Chester Arthur
$1,140,000
James Garfield Rutherford B. Hayes
$1,120,000
Herbert Hoover
$1,110,000 $1,110,000
Richard M. Nixon
$1,000,000
Warren Harding
$1,000,000
Calvin Coolidge Harry S Truman
$870,000
Gerald Ford
$860,000 $820,000
Dwight D. Eisenhower
$760,000
John F. Kennedy
$740,000
Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore
$740,000
Ulysses S. Grant
$730,000
James K. Polk
$730,000
John Tyler
$720,000 $710,000
Lyndon B. Johnson
$690,000
Franklin Pierce
$690,000
James Buchanan
$660,000
Jimmy Carter Wm. Henry Harrison
$660,000
Andrew Jackson
$650,000 $620,000
Martin Van Buren
$590,000
John Quincy Adams
$560,000
George Washington
$500,000
James Monroe Thomas Jefferson
$490,000
Abraham Lincoln
$480,000
George W. Bush
$480,000 $460,000
John Adams
$440,000
Ronald Reagan
$410,000
Barack Obama
$410,000
James Madison
$380,000
Andrew Johnson
$350,000
George H. W. Bush
$290,000
William J. Clinton
$0
$500,000
$1,000,000
$1,500,000
$2,000,000
