Dr. Anthony Fauci earned a whopping $417,608 in 2019 (the latest year in which public data is available), making him the highest-paid employee of the entire federal government for that year.
Fauci, then the face of the Coronavirus Task Force, earned a larger salary than President Trump ($400,000 per year) who created the task force and gave him the position to begin with. It should be noted that Trump did not accept his salary but instead donated it to various departments and programs.
As for Fauci, Forbes reports the figure “made him not only the highest-paid doctor in the federal government but the highest paid out of all four million federal employees.”
And that’s just one year.
Forbes also reports Fauci, the Director of the National Institute for Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and current Chief Medical Advisor to the President, received a pay increase in 2014 from $335,000 to the current $417,608.
With the increase, Fauci collected a $3.6 million salary between 2010 and 2019.
According to the report, Dr. Fauci is on track to earn $2.5 million for helping the federal government from 2019 to 2024.
Here’s how his salary compared to that of then-Vice President Mike Pence, the leader of the Coronavirus Task Force, and other members of the federal government:
Dr. Fauci became the early face of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, appearing daily, often in a live broadcast, to update the nation on the emerging COVID-19 disease. In March 2020, he convinced President Donald Trump on the 15-day lockdown policy to try and flatten the curve, and reportedly advocated on March 29, 2020, for extending the policy beyond its initial 15 days.
Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the Taskforce might have outranked Dr. Fauci in authority, but the VP’s $235,100 salary in 2019, was less than the well-paid NIH director with whom he shared the stage.
— Advertisement — Their Taskforce colleague Dr. Deborah Birx earned $305,972 in 2019, also less than Dr. Fauci’s salary.
In comparison to Dr. Fauci: Speaker Nancy Pelosi will earn $223,500 this year. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will make $270,700, and Members in the House of Representatives and Senators will make $174,000. Four-star military generals outrank, but still fall below Dr. Fauci at $268,000 a year.
Forbes reports Dr. Fauci’s salary is typically an exception to the rule of a generally capped federal salary of $172,500.
“The exception exists to make federal salaries for doctors and scientists more competitive with the private-sector,” Forbes writes.