George Washington was paid a salary of $25,000 a year from 1789 to 1797 as the first president of the United States. The current salary of the president is now $400,000, to go with a $50,000 expense account, a generous pension and several other benefits. Has the remuneration improved? Making a comparison using the CPI for 1790 shows that $25,000 corresponds to over $647,000 today, so current presidents have an equal command over consumer goods as the Father of the Country. When comparing Washingtons salary to an unskilled worker, or the measure of average income, GDP per capita, then the comparable numbers are $12 to $27 million. Granted that would not put him in the ranks of the top 25 executives today that make over $200 million. It would, however, be many times more than any elected official in this country is paid today. Finally, to show the economic power of his wage, we see that his salary as a share of GDP would rank him equivalent to $2.1 billion.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 11:06:33 +0000
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