How—and How Much—Are US Presidents Paid?

According to Article II, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution, the president’s salary “shall neither be encreased (sic) nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected.” That means that once a president’s four-year term begins, their salary cannot be raised or lowered.  

The Founders had good reason for including this clause. Since Congress determines the president’s pay, it could try to influence presidents by raising or lowering their pay while they’re in office. The Framers of the Constitution wanted to protect the highest office in the land from bribery and corruption, including from Congress itself.  

“The wisdom of this clause can scarcely be too highly commended,” wrote former Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story. “The legislature, with a discretionary power over [the president’s] salary and emolument, would soon render him obsequious to their will. A control over a man’s living is in most cases a control over his actions.” 

The Constitution says presidents should receive “compensation,” but it doesn’t say how much. When the First Congress met in 1789, one of their jobs was to set the salary for George Washington, a national hero.  

Several different figures were proposed—from $15,000 to $30,000 a year—and legislators debated whether the president’s salary should include expenses like furniture and carriage drivers. Eventually, $25,000 was floated as a reasonable compromise. For reference, that’s more than $800,000 in 2025.

Alexander White, a representative from Virginia, wondered if $25,000 was too much or not enough. “I should wish to know the style in which the president is expected to live,” White said. “If a style of magnificence and splendor is to be adopted, this sum is too small, or if economy is pursued, it may be too much.” 

In the end, Congress had faith that Washington’s term in office would determine whether $25,000 was the right salary for a president. “[W]e were certain that the gentleman who had to make the first experiment would do it in such a manner as to give satisfaction to everybody,” Representative Abraham Baldwin of Georgia said. “He knows the way to blend dignity and economy.”

As for Vice President John Adams, his pay was set at $5,000 a year—a sum that Abigail Adams complained was not nearly enough.  

Congress did not raise the president’s salary for the next 84 years, meaning that 18 presidents from Washington to Ulysses S. Grant were paid $25,000 a year, not adjusted for inflation.  

In his first inaugural address on April 30, 1789, George Washington famously refused to take a salary as president, but there’s more to the story.  

“I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share of the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department,” Washington said, meaning that he wasn’t interested in his constitutionally mandated pay. But Washington continued, “and [I] must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.” 

Instead of taking a salary, Washington wanted to be reimbursed for his expenses while president. That was the same arrangement that Washington made when he served as general of the Continental Army. Washington declined his $6,000-a-year salary as general but kept meticulous accounts of his expenses, which were sizeable. When he presented Congress with his bill after eight years of service, it was 10 times what he would have made as a salaried officer. 

When Congress convened after Washington’s inauguration, representatives decided to refuse the president’s offer to decline his salary. Representative John Page of Virginia cast the decision as a matter of following the Constitution. Despite Washington’s “patriotic ardor” and “love for his country,” Page said, “the Constitution requires that he shall receive a compensation, and it is our duty to provide it.” 

But Congress might have been equally worried it would be stuck with another whopper of a bill when Washington left office. After all, the wording of the legislation passed on September 24, 1789, made clear that $25,000 for the president and $5,000 for the vice president was “in full compensation for their respective services.” There would be no reimbursements.  

All presidents have received a salary, including Washington, but several have given their pay away. Herbert Hoover, a wealthy businessman, was president during the Great Depression and was the first to donate his full salary to charity. John F. Kennedy came from a fabulously wealthy family and also donated his salary to charity while serving in Congress and in the White House. Donald Trump vowed to take a $1-a-year salary during his first term, donating the rest of his paycheck to government entities like the National Park Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Small Business Administration.  

Congress decides when it’s time to give the president a raise. In more than 230 years of the American presidency, that’s only happened five times:  

1873 – For 84 years, starting with George Washington, the president earned $25,000 a year. By the start of Ulysses S. Grant’s second term in 1873, inflation had reduced the president’s salary by more than 25 percent. Congress voted to double it to $50,000 a year.  

1909 – In time for William Howard Taft’s inauguration, Congress raised the president’s salary to $75,000, where it stood for the next 40 years. 

1949 – By the start of Harry Truman’s second term, $75,000 was worth 62 percent less than in 1909. Congress raised the president’s salary to $100,000.  

1969 – Twenty years later, at the end of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, Congress doubled the president’s salary to $200,000. Richard Nixon was the first to receive it. 

1999 – Bill Clinton was the last president to be paid $200,000. By 1999, the value of $200,000 had dropped by nearly 80 percent in the 30 years since Nixon took office. George W. Bush was the first president to be paid $400,000.  

Since 1999, the president’s base salary has remained fixed at $400,000 a year, but there are other monetary perks to holding the highest office.  

Starting in 1949, the president has received a $50,000-a-year allowance for expenses like dry cleaning and private parties. This money is used to defray personal expenses related to the president’s official duties. The president and first family receive free lodging at the White House and free medical care. 

A president’s compensation does not end when they leave office. All former presidents receive an annual pension equal to the salary of a Cabinet-level secretary, thanks to the Former Presidents Act of 1958. As of 2025, that pension was worth more than $250,000 a year.