White House Staffers got a Hefty Pay Raise Last Year -- Did You?

The White House put on their report 'consistent with President Obama's commitment to transparency' but since 1995 Congress has required this report from the White House.   Guess he could have ignored the requirement like he has on the War Powers Act.


The more that comes out of this White House, the more you see that they reward friends and punish everyone else.   What kind of thinking goes into freezing social security and giving your staff huge pay raises?  


These raises are obscene considering how bad the economy is and how he froze retiree and civil service pay for two years.  As a former Civil Service employee, don't remember ever getting an 8% pay raise or even close.  We were happy to get 2-3% each year.  While seniors on social security were getting a hike in Medicare taken out of their payments, their base social security benefit was frozen so for two years they ended up losing money.  


When is AARP going to attack Obama giving his staff an average 8% pay raise this year for staff who had been there over a year which equated to 54% of the employees?  How many people in private industry ended up with little to no raise the last few years?  Better yet how many people get an 8% pay raise after being somewhere for a year during a bad economy? 


Bottom line is Obama like most Democrats has little regard for the people on fixed social security income or he would not have frozen increase for two years and allowed Medicare to increase what they took out.  Only time most Democrats have any thought to seniors is when an election is coming up.  You would think AARP and senior citizen would get a clue by now about Obama and the Democrats as a whole could care less about seniors, but like Jewish voters many remain voting Democrat because 'they (Democrats) care for the little people' which is bunk!

It pays to work at the White House: Most staffers got a hefty raise last year ... and you didn't

• The average pay hike was eight per cent

• Total wage bill for 2011 is $37million for 454 employees

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 2:12 PM on 7th July 2011 

The White House has released its annual salary report which clearly shows it pays to work at the White House - most staffers who have worked there for a year got a considerable salary bump.Three-quarters of staff got pay raises from 2009 to 2010, whereas most companies skipped raises that year because of the economic crisis that the White House was busy failing to solve. This time around, from 2010 to 2011, of the 270 White House staffers who have been there for more than a year, 54 per cent received raises. The average salary increase was eight per cent. 

 

Good wages: More than a third of staff at the White House earn more than $100,000 

If you count only staffers who got raises, the average increase was twice that.In the real world, the average white-collar worker got a fraction of that, if any. According to a survey conducted last year by the human resources consulting firm Mercer, most firms were projecting a lowly three per cent raise even for executives. 

Overall, it should be noted, the White House's salary budget contracted slightly, from $38.8 million to $37.1 million.The average salary also dropped from $82,721 to $81,765, which is still 65 per cent above the average household income, Gawker.com reports. 

One of Obama's first acts as president was to freeze the salaries of all White House officials earning more than $100,000 because 'during this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington.' 

Two years later, he extended that policy to all federal workers. (Note:  2010/2011 federal workers and social security received NO pay increases) 

But the across-the-board freeze didn't take effect until January 1, 2011, so the most recent report, which goes back to July 2010, shows that special assistant to the president for economic policy Matthew Vogel got a $59,000 raise, 82 per cent, to an annual salary of $130,500.  

Director of African American media Kevin Lewis got a $36,000 or 86 per cent pay hike. 

Both of those came with promotions, but almost half of the raises doled out by the White House in the last year, 59, or 40 per cent of all raises, weren't accompanied by new job descriptions.So despite the rhetoric, the figures show that White House staffers who stick it out are being rewarded for their continued service at a rate that far outstrips how the average white-collar worker is doing. 

The figures show that one in every three employees at the White House earn more than $100,000 a year, with Barack Obama topping the list on $400,000.The President earned twice the $200,000 earned by Bill Clinton during his two terms, with the presidential salary rising considerably during the tenure of George W. Bush. 

America's presidential residence will pay out $37million in salaries to 454 employees in 2011, according to its annual staff report.More than 30 per cent earn between $100,000 and $200,000 per year while more than 20 make the second highest pay grade of $172,200.The top-dollar group includes John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism; press secretary James Carney; William Daley, chief of staff; and director of speechwriting Jonathan Favreau. 

Since 1995 Congress has required the White House to deliver a report listing the salary and title of every employee. 

The administration has posted the report online each year that President Barack Obama has been in office, 'consistent with President Obama's commitment to transparency,' the 2011 report states.  

Read more:  Daily Mail.com