The Obama Foundation paid CEO Valerie Jarrett $771,000 and nearly half its staff six figures even as rank-and-file workers sought a union over cut benefits.
A Breitbart report on a Fox News Digital exclusive laid out the numbers from the foundation’s 2025 tax filing and the pressure building underneath them.
Jarrett, one of former President Barack Obama’s closest advisers and a former senior White House official, has led the foundation since 2021. She oversees the final stretch of the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side. The same filing put several other Obama-era aides and allies near or above the half-million mark while rank-and-file employees described heavier loads and thinner benefits.
The foundation reported 342 employees. Of those, 172 pulled in more than $100,000, roughly half the payroll. Nearly 200 staffers landed in six-figure territory.
The 2025 filing listed approximate top salaries that stretch well beyond Jarrett’s package. Robbin Cohen, a former real estate executive tied to the family of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, came in around $666,000. Christina Tchen, once chief of staff to Michelle Obama, was listed near $431,000. Michael Strautmanis, a former Obama campaign and White House aide, sat around $404,000. Ammar Rizki, formerly Cook County’s chief financial officer, was near $400,000. Laura Lucas Magnuson, a former White House communications official, was listed around $396,000.
Emily Bittner, the foundation’s vice president of communications, defended the pay scale.
"The Foundation pays our employees rates that are competitive with the market,"
Bittner also said the organization has more than 500 employees worldwide, with roughly 300 based at the Center.
Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University accounting professor who studies nonprofit finances, told Fox News Digital the share of six-figure earners stands out.
"That’s clearly higher percentage than your average nonprofit,"
He added context about the kind of shop it is.
"But here we’re dealing with a nonprofit that’s probably very expertise heavy. It’s very heavy on like the think tank side. And as you look at a think tank, it would look very differently than say a local food bank."
Even against other presidential nonprofits, the pattern looks rich. Filings for foundations from Jimmy Carter through George W. Bush generally showed 25 percent or fewer employees above $100,000, with Bush’s at 37 percent. Other presidential foundation CEOs more often landed in the half-million range. The Reagan Foundation CEO was listed at $735,000 while overseeing a library in Southern California, still below Jarrett’s figure.
The salary picture landed as rank-and-file employees pressed to unionize. In a public letter, workers described the gap between the top floor and the rest of the shop.
"Amidst increasing workloads we have seen our benefits rolled back and support from leadership to be minimal,"
They pointed to experienced colleagues leaving and more work falling on those who stayed. The same workplace strain has already drawn coverage of staff efforts to organize over benefit cuts after the center’s opening timeline.
No full letter text, signatory list, or formal election status appears in the available reporting. The complaint itself is plain: heavier loads, thinner benefits, and little help from the top while executives clear hundreds of thousands.
The pay story broke alongside fresh attention to the long-delayed Obama Presidential Center. Fox News Digital reported the price tag had reached $1 billion, nearly triple the original estimate. That overrun tracks with earlier accounts of how costs climbed after years of delays on the South Side project.
The foundation says construction and operating costs are covered by revenues and private donations. Infrastructure improvements around the large campus, however, were paid for by taxpayers. That split has fueled criticism for years.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Bob Grogan put the charge bluntly after the salary figures surfaced.
"The Obama Center is another far-left political operation that acts as a non-profit while using taxpayer dollars to make Barack Obama’s inner circle rich,"
Grogan had previously criticized the use of public parkland for the private enterprise. The same project has also seen contractor trouble, including a plumbing subcontractor collapse and layoffs tied to a multimillion-dollar payment fight.
Separate reporting has likewise tracked how the budget tripled from the first estimate while the foundation’s top tier collected paychecks that dwarf typical nonprofit scales.
Jarrett’s leadership since 2021 has coincided with both the final construction push and the payroll pattern now on paper. The tax filing does not spell out the internal process that set those salaries. It simply records them, and records how many staffers sit above $100,000 while others say the floor is getting heavier and the benefits thinner.
A private nonprofit can pay what the market will bear. Taxpayers still underwrote the roads and work around the campus. When the inner circle clears top-tier money and the rank-and-file ask for a union, the contrast does not need a speech to explain itself.
