Retired Presidents of the United States make a healthy salary, with some of them taking home more than $200,000 dollars per annum. The current President, Donald Trump’s salaries are based on his position as President. While it is also important to look at the other benefits that come with a presidency such as security and public transport allowances.
Often anyone who retires from a high profile job, such as the President of the United States, will receive a generous pension. Many Americans don’t realize that the pensions of former presidents are not paid out by the Federal Government (and in fact, taxpayers do not fund current President Barack Obama’s annual salary of $400,000). The salary for retired presidents is actually funded through private donations from individuals and businesses, collected by presidential foundations and given each year to living former presidents.
Retired U.S. presidents make millions of dollars from a combination of pension, private sector investment and public speaking gigs. In total, ex-presidents have earned over $300 million since 2001. Possibly the most important thing for a retired president is to determine how much money they’re going to need when they retire and how much money they want to be earning during their retirement years.
Salary For Retired Us Presidents Overview
The United States Secret Service is a law enforcement agency that protects the President, his family and other national leaders from physical threats. The Secret Service is also responsible for investigating counterfeiting crimes.
The Secret Service was created in 1865 by President Abraham Lincoln to investigate fraud against the government. In 1901, Congress passed legislation that gave the agency authority to protect the President of the United States.
The agency has been criticized for mismanagement and not keeping up with technological advances. In fiscal year 2019, it will cost taxpayers $1 billion to protect former President Barrack Obama and his family for eight years after he left office in January 2017.
However, the first family does not receive additional money from taxpayers because they are protected by an agreement between former presidents and their successors since 1997. Under this agreement, presidents receive $200,000 annually as well as $20,000 per year for each child who lives in the White House while they are president (or First Lady).
Presidential Retirement Benefits and Pension
Presidential retirement benefits were non-existent until the enactment of the Former Presidents Act (FPA) in 1958. Since then, presidential retirement benefits have included a lifetime annual pension, staff and office allowances, travel expenses, Secret Service protection, and more.
Former presidents haven’t always had a golden parachute. Ulysses S. Grant’s family nearly became penniless until his deathbed autobiography, published by and marketed by Mark Twain became a bestseller.
The FPA was inspired by former President Harry Truman’s life of modest means after leaving office. After returning home to Independence, Missouri, Truman lived off his Army pension—about $1,000 a month in 2021 dollars—while spending thousands responding to correspondence. In 1957, Truman admitted to House Majority Leader John McCormack that he was going broke. In 1958, McCormack succeeded in winning passage of the FPA to “maintain the dignity” of the office of the president with an annuity of $25,000 per year and office expenses. Though Truman lived well more than a decade after the act’s passage, it didn’t apply to him. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower became the FPA’s first beneficiary.
Pension
Former presidents are offered a taxable lifetime pension equal to the annual rate of basic pay for the heads of executive branch departments, like the Cabinet Secretaries. This amount is set annually by Congress and as of 2020 was $210,700 per year.
The pension starts the minute the president officially leaves office at noon on Inauguration Day. Widows of former presidents are provided with a $20,000 annual lifetime pension and free postage use unless they choose to waive their right to the pension.
In 1974, the Justice Department ruled that presidents who resign from office before their official terms of office expire are entitled to the same lifetime pension and benefits extended to other former presidents. However, presidents who are removed from office due to impeachment forfeit all benefits.
Transition Expenses
For the first seven months, beginning one month before the January 20 inauguration, former presidents get transition funding to help them transition back into private life. Granted under the Presidential Transition Act, the funds can be used for office space, staff compensation, communications services, and printing and postage associated with the transition. The amount provided is determined by Congress.
Staff and Office Allowances
Six months after a president leaves office, they get funds for an office staff. During the first 30 months after leaving office, the former president gets a maximum of $150,000 per year for this purpose. Thereafter, the Former Presidents Act stipulates that the aggregate rates of staff compensation for a former president cannot exceed $96,000 annually. Any additional staff costs must be paid for personally by the former president.
Former presidents are compensated for office space and office supplies at any location in the United States. Funds for former presidents’ office space and equipment are authorized annually by Congress as part of the budget for the General Services Administration (GSA).
Travel Expenses
Under a law enacted in 1968, the GSA makes funds available to former presidents and no more than two of their staff members for travel and related expenses. To be compensated, the travel must be related to the former president’s status as an official representative of the United States government. Travel for pleasure is not compensated. The GSA determines all appropriate costs for travel.
Secret Service Protection
With the enactment of the Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012 (H.R. 6620), on Jan. 10, 2013, former presidents and their spouses receive Secret Service protection for their lifetimes. Under the Act, protection for the spouses of former presidents terminates in the event of remarriage. Children of former presidents receive protection until they reach age 16.
The Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012 reversed a law enacted in 1994 that terminated Secret Service protection for former presidents 10 years after they left office.
Richard Nixon is the only former president to have given up his Secret Service protection. He did so in 1985 and paid for his own security, saying his reason was to save the government money. (The savings were estimated to be about $3 million a year.)
Medical Expenses
Former presidents and their spouses, widows, and minor children are entitled to treatment in military hospitals. Former presidents and their dependents also have the option of enrolling in private health insurance plans at their own expense.
State Funerals
Former presidents are traditionally granted state funerals with military honors. Details of the funeral are based on the wishes of the former president’s family.
Retirement
In April 2015, Congress passed a bill titled The Presidential Allowance Modernization Act, which would have capped the pensions of all former and future former presidents at $200,000 and removed the current provision in the Former Presidents Act linking presidential pensions to the annual salaries of cabinet secretaries.
The bill would have also reduced the other allowances paid to former presidents. Annual pensions and allowances would have been limited to a total of no more than $400,000.
But on July 22, 2016, President Barack Obama vetoed the bill stating it “would impose onerous and unreasonable burdens on the offices of former presidents.” In a press release, the White House added that Obama also objected to provisions of the bill that would “immediately terminate salaries and all benefits to staffers carrying out the official duties of former presidents—leaving no time or mechanism for them to transition to another payroll.”