The Obama Foundation's 2025 tax filing lists 172 six-figure earners, nearly half its workforce, as rank-and-file staff seek a union over rolled-back benefits.
Fox News Digital reported that the Obama Foundation’s 2025 tax filing showed 172 employees receiving more than $100,000 in salary, roughly half of the 342 workers listed on the form, while CEO Valerie Jarrett’s pay was listed at $771,000.
The same filing puts the foundation’s payroll and benefits bill at $50.4 million, up from $18.5 million in 2018. Revenue last year ran about $159 million, nearly $151 million of it from contributions and grants. Rank-and-file staff have organized under Obama Workers United with AFSCME Council 31 and say workloads are rising while benefits shrink.
The contrast is hard to miss. Top brass and former White House hands collect large nonprofit salaries. Visitor services, cleaning, museum, technology, educational, and global program workers are asking for a union.
Valerie Jarrett has led the Obama Foundation as CEO since 2021. She is one of former President Barack Obama’s closest advisors and a former senior White House official. Her reported pay path is steep.
When she took the job in 2021, her salary sat near $581,000. It rose to $740,000 in 2022 and held near that level through 2024. The 2025 filing puts her total pay near $755,000, with Fox News also stating the figure at $771,000, a climb of roughly $15,500 from the prior year.
That compensation lands as the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side nears its opening. The dedication ceremony is set for June 18, 2026. The project’s price tag has reached about $1 billion, nearly triple the original estimate. The campus covers 19.3 acres of publicly owned parkland in Jackson Park.
Obama remains active in Democratic politics well beyond the foundation, including recent warnings to Democrats about tight Senate polls that could still break against the party.
Other high earners on the 2025 filing also trace back to Obama’s orbit. Christina Tchen, former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama, received about $431,000. Michael Strautmanis, a former campaign and White House aide, collected roughly $404,000. Laura Lucas Magnuson, a former White House communications official, took home about $396,000. Robbin Cohen, who previously led Pritzker Realty Group, received about $666,000. Ammar Rizki, a former Cook County chief financial officer, received about $400,000. At least four of the nonprofit’s 10 highest-paid executives had prior ties to the Obama White House or campaign.
Those names sit beside other Obama-era figures who have drawn scrutiny after leaving office, including a former Obama press aide charged with felony fraud in Minneapolis.
Emily Bittner, the foundation’s vice president of communications, told Fox News the pay is set to compete.
"The foundation pays our employees rates that are competitive with the market,"
Bittner also said the board reviews top pay with outside help.
"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,"
She put current headcount higher than the filing’s 342 figure.
"We have more than 500 employees worldwide, roughly 300 of whom are based at the center."
The filing covers a year that ended nearly six months before the June opening, which helps explain the gap between the form and the later headcount claim. Endowment funds stood at about $14.2 million at the end of 2025. Net assets have been described as exceeding $1 billion.
Workers organizing with AFSCME Council 31 offered a sharper picture of life below the executive tier. In a public letter they wrote:
"Amidst increasing workloads we have seen our benefits rolled back and support from leadership to be minimal,"
They urged leadership not to spend money on anti-union lawyers, messaging, or meetings. The foundation answered with a carefully worded pledge of respect for labor.
"We are deeply committed to the fundamental right of workers to organize and make their voices heard,"
It added that 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.” Gratitude is easy to print. Restored benefits and lighter loads are harder to verify from the outside.
Fox News compared the Obama Foundation’s six-figure share with other presidential nonprofits using their most recent available filings, mostly 2024. The George W. Bush Presidential Center listed 37% of employees above $100,000. The Carter Center stood at 29%. The Clinton Foundation came in at 23%. The Reagan Foundation was at 13%. The George & Barbara Bush Foundation was at 10%.
Top officer pay at those groups also trailed or roughly matched Jarrett’s package rather than dwarfing it. The Reagan Foundation’s top pay ran near $735,000. The Carter Center listed $531,000 for a fiscal year ending in 2025. The George W. Bush Presidential Center listed $661,000. The George & Barbara Bush Foundation listed $426,600. The Clinton Foundation listed $425,000 for 2024.
Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University accounting professor who studies nonprofit finances, told Fox News the Obama Foundation’s six-figure share stands out against a typical charity.
"That's clearly a higher percentage than your average nonprofit,"
He added that the foundation’s work looks more like a think tank than a local food bank, which can justify higher outside-market salaries. On Jarrett’s pay, he said the figure is not unusual for an organization of this size, though critics of the nonprofit sector often want executive pay kept more modest than private-sector rates.
The foundation has pointed to still higher nonprofit CEO packages elsewhere, roughly $2 million at the Getty Trust, $1.7 million at the Rockefeller Foundation, and $1.5 million at the Mellon Foundation, as context for its own top line. Those comparisons do not erase the gap between the foundation’s own brass and its organizing rank-and-file.
Obama’s post-presidency schedule keeps him on the trail as well, including a planned Detroit stop tied to a tight Michigan Senate race, even as his private foundation’s internal pay structure draws fresh attention.
The foundation says construction of the Presidential Center is privately funded and that operating costs will be covered by revenues and private donations. It acknowledges that public funds supported infrastructure improvements around the campus. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Bob Grogan rejected that framing.
"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,"
Grogan’s charge is partisan. The underlying records are not. A $1 billion campus on public parkland, a payroll that more than doubled since 2018, and a workforce where roughly half the listed employees clear six figures sit in the same filing that workers now cite as they organize.
Michelle Obama’s public profile remains tightly bound to the same network that staffs the foundation’s upper ranks, whether through former aides on the payroll or through lifestyle coverage such as her return to an argyle look that once sparked White House fashion fights.
The foundation presents itself as a mission-driven nonprofit with market-rate pay set by consultants and board review. Its own tax numbers show a different internal split: heavy compensation at the top and among former White House hands, a soaring construction budget, and a rank-and-file that says benefits have moved the other way.
When half the listed staff clears six figures and the people who clean the floors and greet the visitors still have to organize for a seat at the table, the “nonprofit” label starts to look more like a brand than a restraint.
