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 4 – $25,000 initially / $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 annual taxable allowance, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, a $19,000 entertainment budget, 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 ($951,647.73 in 2026 dollars)
- 1873: $50,000 ($1,903,295.45 in 2026 dollars)
- 1909: $75,000 ($2,854,943.18 in 2026 dollars)
- 1949: $100,000 ($3,806,590.91 in 2026 dollars)
- 1969: $200,000 ($7,613,181.82 in 2026 dollars)
