White House salaries released

Annual salaries at the White House for 2011 total $37.1 million, compared with $38.8 million in 2010, according to an annual report of salaries the White House sends to Congress.

The report, released Friday, shows that the number of staff employed by the White House fell to 454 from 469.

Of those 454 employees, 21 earn the maximum pay of $172,200 per year. The top-paid staffers are all senior officials, such as press secretary Jay Carney, counterterrorism czar John Brennan, speechwriter Jon Favreau and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Some on the list took big pay cuts for their job, such as chief of staff Bill Daley. Daley’s cash and stock bonus for 2010 at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., paid in 2011, was $4.8 million. His pension plan, paid out in a lump sum, totaled about $6.7 million.

The lowest salary is $41,000, and three White House advisers work for free: Patricia McGinnis, Jessica Schumer and Shale Wong. Of the 434 employees listed, 142 of them earned less than $50,000 a year. The average salary is about $82,000.

President Barack Obama’s annual salary is $400,000. Tampabay.com