President Barack Obama and his Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel have announced their decision to take voluntary pay cuts in an apparent expression of solidarity with more than 1 million federal workers who face furloughs under the Congressionally-mandated $85 billion “sequester” or automatic spending cuts this year.
Obama has decided to take a 5 per cent pay cut. He earns $400,000 a year and so will be foregoing $20,000. Since the president’s annual salary is set in law and cannot be changed officially, Obama will be writing out cheques in the first week of every month till the year-end.
“The President has decided that to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury. He instructed his staff he wanted to do this when the sequester took effect,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.
Separately, Hagel has announced that he would be returning a portion of his salary that would have been cut if he had been subjected to the same work furlough as thousands of Pentagon personnel under the sequester.
Some 750,000 defence employees are the worst-hit group in the furlough plan, having to forego 14 days of pay this year. Hagel, who earns a little less than $200,000 annually, will write a check to the Treasury for up to 14 days of salary, said Pentagon spokesman George little.
Nearly 500 furlough notices have gone out to administration employees this week. “The White House is one of eleven components of the Executive Office of the President which is indeed, as we have said, subject to the sequester,” Carney said, adding: “Within the Executive Office of the President, several offices have sent furlough notices to their staff, including to 480 employees of the Office of Management and Budget.”