This video was made possible by Dashlane. Stay safe online for free for thirty days
at https://www.dashlane.com/hai. Alright, so here’s the question: how much
does the US President get paid? Seems easy enough, right? At first glance, you’d think this is one
of those questions where I should be able to just tell you a number and then you can
go on your merry way, exploring the rest of what YouTube has to offer: rap battles, trick
basketball shots, people falling down staircases, and even lame plane videos from that guy at
Wendover Productions. But, of course, if things were really that
simple, this video would only be 10 seconds long, which is hardly enough time for someone
to fall down a staircase, let alone to fill an entire HAI video. The truth is that the answer is… as usual…
a little bit more complicated than you might first think. Now, we’re going to get down to talking
cold hard cash soon enough, but first let’s address the elephant in the room. He’s right here, and his name is Gary. Now that we’ve addressed that, let’s answer
a looming question: why does the President even need a salary? After all, don’t they get to live for free
in a big White House with a fancy staff and a private plane and those cool M&Ms with the
presidential seal on them? Well, yes…but also, no. See it turns out that despite what most people
think, life in the White House isn’t totally free. While it is true that Presidents don’t have
to pay rent or utilities in the White House, they do have to pay for almost everything
else. One of the most significant costs is food—the
White House has its own kitchen staff, but Presidents aren’t given some sort of win-270-electoral-votes-get-one-meal-free
coupon. The cost of every meal that kitchen whips
up for the First Family gets tallied and put into an itemized bill to be paid at the end
of the month, and while the salary of the chef who makes that food is covered by the
government, not all staff costs are—for example, when the President throws a private
White House party, they have to pay not only for the food and beverages, but also for the
wait staff, servers, cleanup crew, and anything else that would be at a White House party,
like… I dunno… a piñata shaped like Congress. Plus, the President has to pay for everything
else that a normal person might need: toothpaste, shampoo—well, except for Eisenhower—those
little American flag pins, a Netflix subscription, and, of course, clothes—which can also get
quite expensive, especially for the First Lady, who is generally expected to wear different,
expensive, designer outfits to a wide array of events, because, you know, sexism. Now, for official Presidential business, the
federal government does pick up the tab, so the President isn’t stuck paying for things
like state dinners, secret service, Air Force One, and so on, which often leads to controversy
that we’re going to give a big wide berth and not address in the slightest. For anything personal, though taxpayers aren’t
expected to cover the bill, which means that when JFK wanted a midnight snack—and I don’t
mean Marilyn Monroe, I mean, like, a sandwich or something—he had to pay out of his own
pocket. Now that we’ve talked about why the President
needs money, let’s talk about the money itself. The President’s salary is set by Congress,
and Congress has voted to raise that salary six times, mostly just so that it keeps up
with inflation. One interesting little wrinkle of this power
is that under Article II, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution, Congress cannot raise
the President’s salary for the current term, only for future terms. That is, if Congress votes to raise the President’s
salary, that raise doesn’t take effect until after the next Presidential election. This provision is presumably in place to prevent
corruption in the Oval Office, which so far has been working out great. The first ever US presidential salary went
to, of course, the first ever US president—George Washington, who was paid $25,000 a year. Now that may not seem like a lot, but when
you adjust for inflation, in 1789, when Washington took office, $25,000 was worth about $720,000
in 2019 dollars—at least, according to the CPI index, which is going to be what I use
for all of these inflation calculations because even though I know there are bunch of different
ways to calculate inflation, this is the one I like, and if you have a problem with that,
you can leave an angry comment below, because comment engagement means YouTube’s algorithm
prioritizes the video more. That’s right commenters—your anger only
makes me stronger. Anyways, the President’s salary stayed at
$25,000 until 1872, at which point, Congress raised the president’s salary to $50,000,
starting with the second term of Ulysses S. Grant—In 2019 dollars, Grant was making
about $1.1 million. That lasted until 1908, when, the salary was
upped to $75,000 starting in 1909, for the first term of William Howard Taft, giving
him the highest inflation-adjusted salary of any President—nearly $2.2 million in
2019 dollars. In 1948, we saw another raise, which took
place in the middle of Truman’s two terms. As of his second term, which started in 1949,
he made $100,000, or just under $1.1 million in 2019 dollars. In 1968, Congress doubled it, which meant
that starting in 1969, the President, now Richard M. Nixon, made $200,000, or about
$1.4 million in 2019 dollars. That salary lasted all the way through the
end of Bill Clinton’s second term in 2000, when it was doubled once more, to $400,000,
or about $600,000 in 2019 dollars. And now in 2019, it still sits at $400,000,
which in 2019 dollars would be $400,000. Now there are a few additions to that $400,000
salary—a $50,000 expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and a $19,000 entertainment
account. Plus, when the President moves in, they get
$100,000 to redecorate the White House however they’d like, but apart from that, and the
private jet, and the private helicopter, and the secret service, and the millions they’ll
make giving talks once they leave office, they don’t get anything else—being president
truly is a hard knock life. Being President, there are a lot of things
you have to remember—the nuclear codes, 10 Downing Street’s address, your tee times—so
you really don’t have time to remember things like all your passwords. Especially as president, you need to make
sure that you’re using safe, complex passwords that look like this rather than simple ones
like this. That’s why, when you become president, or
maybe even before, you should use Dashlane as your password manager as it will generate
and keep all these super-secure passwords, unique to each of your accounts, behind a
single super-super-secure password that you have to remember, and then autofill them when
you go to log in. This is sure to beef up your online security,
and then Dashlane premium also includes a bunch of other tools to keep you safe online
like a VPN, breach alerts, secure file storage, and much more. All of that is for a very low monthly price—less
than most standalone VPN’s—and can be free for 30-days if you sign up at dashlane.com/HAI. After that trial lapses, you can then use
the coupon code, “HAI,” for 10% off upgrading to premium.
Worth mentioning that President Washington set a precedent of accepting a presidential salary even though he didn't want to. The framers thought it was important because it insulated the president from potential external monetary pressures. Plus, it sends a message that even those with few resources would be supported and could seek office (although that's less relevant today with how expensive campaigning is). So there's a lot of symbolism behind the presidential salary in addition to the expenses presidents normally incur.
0:22 I have watched that clip before!