The Obama Foundation’s 2025 tax filing shows 172 employees clearing six figures and CEO Valerie Jarrett taking $771,000 while rank-and-file staff say workloads rose and benefits shrank.
Fox News Digital reported that the foundation’s 2025 filing listed 342 employees, with 172 of them paid more than $100,000, roughly half the reported workforce. CEO Valerie Jarrett’s compensation hit $771,000 that year.
The numbers arrive as the Obama Presidential Center opens on Chicago’s South Side and as lower-level staff organize under AFSCME Council 31. Workers describe heavier workloads, rolled-back benefits, and thin support from leadership. The contrast between executive pay and shop-floor complaints is the story.
Jarrett has led the foundation since 2021. Her pay started near $581,000, rose to $740,000 for 2022 through 2024, then climbed again. The filing and related reporting put her latest figure at $771,000.
Other top earners also collected large checks. Robbin Cohen received about $666,000. Christina Tchen took roughly $431,000. Michael Strautmanis collected about $404,000. Ammar Rizki received about $400,000. Laura Lucas Magnuson was paid about $396,000. At least four of the ten highest-paid executives had prior ties to the Obama White House or campaign.
Annual payroll and benefits reached $50.4 million in 2025, up from $18.5 million in 2018. Revenue ran about $159 million last year, nearly $151 million of it from contributions and grants. Endowment funds stood near $14.2 million at the end of 2025. Net assets exceeded $1 billion.
The Obama Presidential Center itself carried a $1 billion price tag, nearly triple the original estimate. The 19.3-acre campus sits on publicly owned parkland in Jackson Park. The foundation says construction was privately funded and operating costs come from revenues and private donations, while public money supported surrounding infrastructure.
Dedication ceremonies were set for June 18, 2026. The filing covers a year that ended nearly six months before the center opened.
Compared with peer institutions, the Obama Foundation stands out. Filings reviewed for other presidential nonprofits showed lower shares of employees above $100,000: George W. Bush Presidential Center 37 percent, Carter Center 29 percent, Clinton Foundation 23 percent, Reagan Foundation 13 percent, and the George & Barbara Bush Foundation 10 percent.
Top-officer pay elsewhere also trailed Jarrett’s figure in several cases. The Reagan Foundation listed about $735,000. The Carter Center reported $531,000 for a fiscal year ending in 2025. The George W. Bush Presidential Center listed $661,000. The George & Barbara Bush Foundation reported $426,600. The Clinton Foundation listed $425,000 in 2024.
The foundation pointed to larger charity peers when defending executive pay, citing recent filings that showed the Getty Trust president near $2 million, the Rockefeller Foundation president at $1.7 million, and the Mellon Foundation president at $1.5 million.
Ohio State University accounting professor Brian Mittendorf, who specializes in nonprofit finances, told Fox News the share of six-figure salaries is higher than at a typical nonprofit. His assessment framed the foundation as expertise-heavy, closer to a think tank than a local food bank.
"That's clearly a higher percentage than your average nonprofit. 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."
Mittendorf added that the pay levels can reflect outside market options for specialized staff, and that Jarrett’s compensation is common for an organization of this size even if critics prefer more modest nonprofit pay.
"This is not an unusual amount... to see for a highest paid employee for a director or a CEO. It's quite common, though, for an organization of this size."
Emily Bittner, the foundation’s vice president of communications, said the board uses comparability data and a compensation consultant each year for the CEO, officers, and key employees. She also said the foundation pays competitive market rates and employs more than 500 people worldwide, roughly 300 of them based at the center.
"The foundation pays our employees rates that are competitive with the market. The Board of Directors uses comparability data and a compensation consultant to review and approve the compensation of the CEO, officers and key employees on an annual basis."
On the organizing drive, the foundation stated it respects the right to organize and approaches the process with gratitude for staff contributions and a commitment to work with labor partners.
Obama Workers United, organizing with AFSCME Council 31, struck a sharper note in a public letter. Staff described rising workloads paired with benefit cuts and little backing from the top. Breitbart’s account of the same dispute put the letter’s complaint in plain view.
"Amidst increasing workloads we have seen our benefits rolled back and support from leadership to be minimal."
Workers urged leadership to respect organizing rights and avoid spending on anti-union lawyers, messaging, or meetings. The same workplace friction has already drawn coverage of the union push over benefit cuts after the center opened.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Bob Grogan framed the arrangement as a political operation wearing a nonprofit label. He argued taxpayer-supported parkland and related public spending help enrich Obama’s inner circle while the institution operates as a private foundation.
"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."
That criticism lands against a project already marked by cost growth and contractor strain. Separate reporting has tracked how the center’s budget tripled from first estimates, and how a plumbing subcontractor later shut down and laid off 25 workers in a multimillion-dollar payment fight tied to the same campus.
The foundation did not supply an updated payroll breakdown for the larger workforce of more than 500. The 342-employee count and the 172 six-figure salaries come from the 2025 filing itself. Whether those figures are salary-only or total compensation is not spelled out in the available reporting.
What is clear is the split: a dense cluster of high salaries at the top and center, a CEO paid like a major-institution executive, and a rank-and-file campaign that says benefits moved the wrong direction while the work piled up. Earlier coverage of the six-figure share and the union drive tracked the same gap between brass and staff.
Nonprofit status does not erase incentives. When nearly half a reported workforce clears six figures, when familiar political aides collect packages in the $400,000-to-$600,000 range, and when the people keeping the place running say support is minimal, donors and taxpayers are entitled to ask who the institution actually serves.
Elite nonprofits that preach equity rarely enjoy explaining their own pay scales. This one just put the numbers on the form.
