The Constitution does not state what the salary of the President will be. What was the initial salary and what is it today?
- $10,000 / $200,000
- $20,000 / $300,000
- $20,000 / $350,000
- $25,000 / $400,000
Answer
The correct answer is D – $25,000 initial / $400,000 today
You may be thinking, how can the President get by on only $400,000 a year? But a current president also gets another $50,000 in a non-taxable expense account and a free place to live. George Washington's salary in today's dollars would be $669,469, but he didn't have the Presidential limo, Air Force One or Marine One to get him around!
When you use an inflation calculator to determine what each salary would be worth in today's dollars, it turns out that $400,000 a year is nothing compared to what some previous presidents earned.
- 1789: $25,000 ($728,894.89 in 2019 dollars)
- 1873: $50,000 ($1,457,789.77 in 2019 dollars)
- 1909: $75,000 ($2,186,684.66 in 2019 dollars)
- 1949: $100,000 ($2,915,579.55 in 2019 dollars)
- 1969: $200,000 ($5,831,159.09 in 2019 dollars)