The Obama Foundation’s 2025 tax filing reveals 172 employees earning over $100,000, with CEO Valerie Jarrett at $771,000, as rank-and-file staff seek a union over heavier workloads and rolled-back benefits.

Fox News Digital reported the Obama Foundation’s 2025 tax filing listed 172 workers above the $100,000 mark out of 342 total employees, roughly half the payroll.

CEO Valerie Jarrett, a longtime Obama adviser who took the top job in 2021, drew $771,000 that year. Her pay path climbed from about $581,000 at the start to $740,000 by 2022 and held near that level before the latest jump of roughly $15,500.

Payroll and benefits hit $50.4 million in 2025, up from $18.5 million in 2018. Revenue reached about $159 million, nearly $151 million of it from contributions and grants. Net assets topped $1 billion.

Those numbers landed just as the Obama Presidential Center opened on Chicago’s South Side. The 19.3-acre campus sits on publicly owned parkland in Jackson Park. Its price tag reached $1 billion, nearly triple the original estimate, while public money covered surrounding infrastructure work.

Jarrett and Obama-era aides top the pay list

At least four of the ten highest-paid executives carried prior ties to the Obama White House or campaign. Christina Tchen, once chief of staff to Michelle Obama, received about $431,000. Michael Strautmanis, a former campaign and White House aide, collected roughly $404,000. Laura Lucas Magnuson, a past White House communications official, took home about $396,000. Ammar Rizki, previously Cook County’s chief financial officer, earned around $400,000. Robbin Cohen, who earlier led Pritzker Realty Group, stood out at approximately $666,000.

Ohio State accounting professor Brian Mittendorf, who specializes in nonprofit finances, told reporters the share of six-figure salaries runs higher than a typical charity.

"That's clearly 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 match outside market opportunities for that kind of staff and that Jarrett’s compensation is common for an organization of this size. He noted the foundation’s net assets exceeded $1 billion.

Other presidential nonprofits posted lower six-figure shares in their 2024 filings: George W. Bush Presidential Center at 37 percent, Carter Center at 29 percent, Clinton Foundation at 23 percent, Reagan Foundation at 13 percent, and George & Barbara Bush Foundation at 10 percent. CEO pay elsewhere also trailed Jarrett’s figure in several cases, Reagan Foundation near $735,000, Carter Center $531,000 for fiscal years ending 2025, Bush Center $661,000, George & Barbara Bush Foundation $426,600, and Clinton Foundation $425,000 in 2024.

The foundation pointed to still-higher executive pay at places like the Getty Trust (about $2 million), Rockefeller Foundation ($1.7 million), and Mellon Foundation ($1.5 million).

Foundation defends market rates as headcount grows

Emily Bittner, the foundation’s vice president of communications, said the group now employs more than 500 people worldwide, with roughly 300 based at the center. The 2025 filing covered a period ending nearly six months before the June 2026 opening, which helps explain the gap with the earlier headcount of 342.

"The Foundation pays our employees rates that are competitive with the market."

Bittner also stated the board reviews CEO and key-employee pay each year with comparability data and a compensation consultant. The foundation maintains that construction was privately funded and that operating costs come from revenues and private donations, even while public dollars supported nearby infrastructure.

That mix of private claims and public land use has drawn steady fire from critics who see the project as another example of elite Democratic networks protecting their own, much like earlier episodes detailed in FBI records on Obama-era Senate-seat talks.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Bob Grogan put the charge bluntly.

"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."

Rank-and-file staff organize over workloads and benefits

While top salaries climbed, workers under the banner Obama Workers United, affiliated with AFSCME Council 31, moved to unionize. The group includes visitor services, cleaning, museum, technology, educational, and global programs staff. In a public letter they described the daily reality on the ground.

"Amidst increasing workloads we have seen our benefits rolled back and support from leadership to be minimal."

They urged leadership to respect organizing rights and avoid spending on anti-union lawyers, messaging, or meetings. The foundation answered with a carefully worded statement of support.

"We are deeply committed to the fundamental right of workers to organize and make their voices heard. As members of our staff explore union representation, we approach this process with immense gratitude for their contributions, deep respect for unions, and a sincere commitment to working collaboratively with our partners in labor."

The contrast is hard to miss: six-figure executives with White House résumés on one side, front-line staff citing heavier loads and thinner benefits on the other. Similar gaps between progressive rhetoric and elite living arrangements have surfaced elsewhere, including coverage of Kamala Harris settling into an $8 million Malibu estate.

Endowment funds stood at only about $14.2 million at the end of 2025, modest next to the billion-dollar asset base and the swollen payroll. The foundation’s own numbers show how fast spending scaled once the presidential center neared completion and programs expanded.

Democratic institutions have faced repeated credibility tests in recent years, whether over courtroom clashes such as a Biden-appointed judge eroding DOJ lawyers’ standing or internal party fights that expose soft standards.

Mittendorf cautioned that nonprofit executive pay often draws fire even when it matches private-sector alternatives, because many donors expect more modest compensation in the charitable world. He still viewed Jarrett’s package as ordinary for an outfit of this scale and expertise mix.

The same pattern of high-level comfort and rank-and-file strain appears whenever progressive brands preach equity while their own ledgers tell a different story, a tension also visible when Democrats scrambled to contain an ugly internal slur controversy.

Tax filings do not lie. When half the listed workforce clears six figures, the CEO clears three-quarters of a million, and the people who clean the floors and greet the visitors say benefits are shrinking, the distance between the brand and the back office is measured in hard dollars.