White House Salaries Revealed

White House Salaries Range From $172,000 to $42,000

ByABC News
July 1, 2014, 12:37 PM
The north side of the White House is seen Sept. 20, 2012 in Washington.
The north side of the White House is seen Sept. 20, 2012 in Washington.
Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

— -- The annual list of who makes what at the White House is out. It’s been a requirement since 1995 for the White House to alert Congress of the salary of presidential staffers. So, let’s take a look what the 457 employees of President Obama (who makes an annual salary of $400,000) rake in every year.

Cost of living in DC is about 22 percent higher than the national average, with the annual average income around $45,000 compared to $28,000 nationally, according to the latest census.

The full list can be accessed here.

$172,200:22-of Obama’s staff make the "big bucks." This salary goes to folks with the title “assistants to the president” and they all normally have a second title (although the additional title does not mean additional salary.) For example, Senior Adviser Dan Pfieffer; Press Secretary Josh Earnest; Cecilia Muñoz director of Domestic Policy Council; and Counselor to the President John Podesta. All these folks also have title of “assistant to the president.” And none of them have received a raise since President Obama took office and a freeze went into effect during the recession.

$158,500:Deputy Assistants to the President are next and they too have not received a raise in years. Twelve of his staffers make this salary.

$75,500:Travel office star Ashley Tate-Gilmore makes about average for her role as the Director of Travel for the White House. According the Department of Labor Statistics, Meeting, Convention and Event planners average around $73,000 nationally. Tate-Gilmore’s duties include managing all White House travel, including airplane charters, hotel bookings, and staff movements.

$70,700:The first lady’s staff doesn’t make as much. Joanna Rosholm, who serves as press secretary to Michelle Obama, makes less than half of the president’s press secretary.

$42,420:And our friends in lower press – those wranglers – who escort the White House press corp around, make the lowest. They are responsible for taking networks into events, managing the media and received their first pay increase since Obama took office this year. A 1 percent raise was issued for all of the federal government this year under an executive order signed by the president in December.

A White House official tells ABC News that most employees making under $100,000 were eligible for the raise. A handful of historically retained employees (that stay on from administration to administration) making over $100,000 were also eligible. But the overall pay freeze is still in effect for White House staff.