According to Forbes, Anthony Fauci will be raking in the largest federal retirement package ever in America with an annual payment of $350,000.
After 55 years of federal service, the White House’s COVID advisor, now 81, shows no signs that he is retiring. Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, (NIAID), at the National Institutes of Health from 1984 to 2014.
Fauci’s retirement income would be $350,000 per-year if he were to retire today. However, his benefits and pension would increase due to cost-of-living adjustments.
Fauci, who was appointed point person in the White House coronavirus response to Trump under his leadership, has been a bit of a celebrity with Democrats. The left often praises Fauci for his rebuke of Trump during the initial days of the pandemic.
Nicolle Wallace, MSNBC’s host said on Tuesday with a COVID panel that she was a Fauci groupie. I am an ardent mask adherent, who has been vaccinated three times. I order KN95 Masks by the caseload. You can find them in any pocket. They’re everywhere I go, even when I’m not sitting.
The infectious disease expert has preached avid mask-wearing and getting vaccinated – including boosted – against coronavirus. Trump’s supporters quickly turned against Trump, believing that he was trying to remove right by mandating vaccines and masks.
In 2019, Fauci had a salary of $417,608 and in 2020 was bumped to $434,312 – giving him two consecutive years of being the highest compensated federal employee. Fauci earned more than the president and four of the five star generals, as well as the roughly 4.3million federal employees.
Joe Biden (79) is a president and earns $400,000 per year.
After 55 years of service in the federal government, Dr. Anthony Fauci (81) would be able to retire at a salary upwards $350,000 annually.
Fauci earned $434,312 in 2020, making it the second consecutive year that he out-earned every other federal employee, including the president, who has a salary of $400,000
Fauci’s salary for 2021 has not been disclosed. Forbes however filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in an effort to get all financial disclosures. This was required by a federal judge starting on February 1, 2022.
The Office of Personnel Management notes that federal employees with such a lengthy service like Fauci can retire and still earn 80 per cent of their average salary from the last three salaries they earned – plus any credit they have left for sick leave that wasn’t taken.
Fauci could have earned an 88% pension payment of 333,745 using 2018, 2019, and 2020 wages, which amounts to $1.252million in earnings over the three year period. If Fauci had retired by 2020, he would have made $333,745 in retirement.
Forbes included a three-year cost of living increase in this calculation.
Since Fauci’s 2021 and 2022 salaries are still unknown – but likely similar or slightly higher – it’s safe to say his retirement pay should he choose to end his tenure soon would be closer to $347,500 or higher.
Fauci began his role as Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden in January 2021.
However, his biggest salary increase was in 2004, under President George W. Bush, when Fauci received a permanent pay adjustment for biodefense work.
Bush gave Fauci the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the work he did on the Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in 2008.
Fauci became somewhat of a celebrity among Democrats after he became point person for the White House coronavirus response under Donald Trump – and often publicly rebuked or went against the president
Fauci, who has already exceeded the 10-year minimum work requirement for receiving an annuity, would see his annual payout increase by 2 percentage points of his average three high salary. This means that, should he leave in December, he’d be able to earn about $8,500 annually in retirement.
Fauci, who is now an expert on White House responses to the coronavirus pandemic due to the current outbreak of the virus has been able become an advocate for the White House.
While it appeared early in the summer that the U.S. was in the final days of restrictions in the pandemic, the administration quickly reinstated mandates as the Delta variant emerged – and now it is grappling with the even more contagious, but seemingly less serious, Omicron variant.
In order to require private companies employing 100 people or more to enforce a vaccine-or test mandate, this administration made a rule that requires all employees of these businesses to show proof they have been vaccinated.
Over the last week, national case rates rose and mask mandates were reinstated in those areas that they were lifted.