Obama Foundation tax filings show 172 six-figure salaries and CEO Valerie Jarrett’s $771,000 pay as staff organize over heavier loads and cut benefits.
Fox News Digital reported that the Obama Foundation’s 2025 tax filing listed 172 employees making more than $100,000, roughly half of the 342 workers on the books that year. CEO Valerie Jarrett’s total pay hit $771,000.
The numbers arrived as the foundation prepared to open the Obama Presidential Center 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.
Payroll and benefits climbed from $18.5 million in 2018 to $50.4 million in 2025. Revenue ran about $159 million last year, nearly $151 million of it from contributions and grants. Net assets topped $1 billion. Reported endowment funds stood near $14.2 million at the end of 2025.
Jarrett took over as CEO in 2021 at roughly $581,000. Her pay rose to $740,000 in 2022 and held there through 2024 before climbing again. The foundation’s highest-paid ranks include several people with prior Obama White House or campaign ties.
Comparative filings put the Obama Foundation well above peer presidential groups on the share of staff clearing six figures. The George W. Bush Presidential Center sat at 37 percent. The Carter Center hit 29 percent. The Clinton Foundation was at 23 percent. The Reagan Foundation came in at 13 percent. The George & Barbara Bush Foundation stood at 10 percent. Those figures came from 2024 filings, the most recent available for that review.
CEO pay at those groups also trailed Jarrett’s 2025 total. 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 showed $661,000. The George & Barbara Bush Foundation listed $426,600. The Clinton Foundation reported $425,000 for 2024.
Inside the Obama Foundation’s own 2025 ranks, Robbin Cohen received about $666,000. Christina Tchen, a former chief of staff to Michelle Obama, took roughly $431,000. Michael Strautmanis, a former campaign and White House aide, collected about $404,000. Ammar Rizki, once Cook County’s chief financial officer, received about $400,000. Laura Lucas Magnuson, a former White House communications official, received about $396,000. At least four of the ten highest-paid executives had previous Obama White House or campaign ties.
The foundation has also faced scrutiny over the Obama Presidential Center’s ballooning price tag as construction wrapped and dedication approached.
Ohio State accounting professor Brian Mittendorf, who studies nonprofit finances, told Fox the six-figure share stands out against a typical charity. He also noted the foundation’s expertise-heavy model.
Mittendorf said:
"That's clearly a higher percentage than your average nonprofit."
He added:
"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."
On Jarrett’s compensation he said the figure is common for an organization of this size, even as critics argue nonprofit pay should stay more modest than private-sector rates. A related Fox News video segment featured the same analysis of the 172 six-figure earners and Jarrett’s pay.
Foundation vice president of communications Emily Bittner defended the scale. The group says it now employs more than 500 people worldwide, with roughly 300 based at the center, up from the 342 counted in the 2025 filing that covered a period ending nearly six months before the June opening.
Bittner said:
"The foundation pays our employees rates that are competitive with the market."
She also said:
"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."
The foundation pointed to higher top pay at other large nonprofits, citing recent filings that put the Getty Trust president near $2 million, the Rockefeller Foundation president at $1.7 million, and the Mellon Foundation president at $1.5 million. It maintains construction was privately funded and that operating costs come from revenues and private donations, while public money backed infrastructure improvements around the campus.
While senior pay rose, workers organized under Obama Workers United with AFSCME Council 31. The group includes visitor services and cleaning staff, museum and technology workers, and educational and global programs employees. In a public letter they described rising pressure without matching support.
The workers wrote:
"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 statement of support for the right to organize.
That internal friction tracks earlier reporting on the Obama center staff union drive over workloads and lost benefits.
The foundation said:
"We are deeply committed to the fundamental right of workers to organize and make their voices heard."
It added it approaches the process “with immense gratitude for their contributions, deep respect for unions, and a sincere commitment to working collaboratively with our partners in labor.”
At the same time, the center has sought unpaid help. The New York Post reported the foundation wanted 75 to 100 unpaid “ambassadors” to greet visitors and explain exhibits alongside paid staff, even as Jarrett’s pay held at $740,000 in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and total salaries and benefits had already jumped from $18.5 million in 2018 to $43.7 million in 2024 with 337 employees.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Bob Grogan, a longtime critic of the parkland deal, framed the pay structure in sharper political terms.
Grogan said:
"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."
Project headaches have not been limited to the payroll ledger. A subcontractor dispute tied to the center produced layoffs and a multimillion-dollar payment fight as the campus neared opening.
Dedication ceremonies were set for June 18, 2026, with Jarrett among the speakers. The foundation presents the center as a civic and leadership hub. The tax filings, the peer comparisons, and the workers’ letter show a different tension inside the same organization: top compensation and a high share of six-figure salaries on one side, unpaid volunteer pitches and a union drive over loads and benefits on the other.
Readers following Obama-era institutional controversies have seen the pattern before, including lighter public gestures at the center that sit beside heavier unfinished business from the same political brand, as when the campus marked Tan Suit Day with free stickers.
Elite nonprofits that preach equity rarely apply the same yardstick to their own payrolls, and taxpayers who underwrote the surrounding infrastructure should not have to pretend otherwise.