Biden Administration Spent $100 Million On Payroll Since 2021 While 220 Staffers Quit Last Year
By Adam Andrzejewski
BIG NUMBERS
During President Joe Biden’s first two-years, he spent $100.7 million on the largest White House payroll in American history, based on headcount.
No White House ever employed 500 staffers. The Biden White House employed 560 (FY2021) and 474 this year (2022). In 2022, the headcount dropped by 86 employees.
Biden employs 100 more staffers than Trump (374) (FY2018) and five more than Obama (469) (FY2010) at the same point in their respective presidencies.
There was 39.3-percent turnover in White House staff, year over year. 220 employees from last year are no longer on payroll. This mirrored the exact same turnover percentage as the worst year of the Trump administration (2018).
The costs over the first two-years of the Biden administration exceeded Trump ($85.1 million) by $15.6 million; but the costs were $5.7 million less than Obama ($106.4 million), adjusted for inflation. (However, Biden didn’t disclose the pay of 16 staffers.)
KEY BACKGROUND
Today, the Biden administration released its annual report to Congress on the White House Office Personnel. The payroll data includes employee name, status, salary, and position title for all White House employees as of July 1, 2022.
Search the all White House payrolls from 2009 through 2022 including Obama, Trump, and Biden administration payrolls posted at OpenTheBooks.com.
Download a free copy of our OpenTheBooks Oversight Report – White House Payrolls (2009-2021) .
The large Biden White House payroll had been a leading indicator of his commitment to expand the federal bureaucracy at all levels. For example, in the first nine days of his presidency, Biden issued many executive orders expanding the size, scope, and power of the federal bureaucracy.
TOP PAID
The most highly compensated White House Biden staffer?
The top paid is Francis S. Collins ($300,000), Acting Science Advisor To The President — the immediate-former director of the National Institutes of Health and one of 1,805 third party royalty recipients at the agency. The second most highly paid is Luisa M. Paiewonsky ($191,300), Senior Policy Advisor for Transportation.
The two top-paid employees from last year Molly Groom ($185,656), Policy Advisor For Immigration; and Elizabeth Hone ($183,164), Senior Policy Advisor For Broadband are not with the administration any longer.
Other top paid employees include the Biden policy czars.
Biden doesn’t disclose his issue advisors as “czars.” However, he employs 91 special assistants to the president on policies ranging from homeland security to criminal justice and guns to climate policy and, separately, climate finance.
Critics at Politico have already questioned, “How many czars does the Biden administration need?”
Starting in 2009, President Obama came under fire for hiring special initiative czars. From 2017-2020, we found no evidence of “czars” on Trump’s payroll.