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The Obama Foundation paid more than $100,000 to roughly half of its reported workforce last year, while a group of its employees is now seeking union representation, according to a Fox News Digital review of the nonprofit’s tax filings. From this perspective, Obama is feeding his loyalists big money while making the people who actually run the day-to-day activities battle it out for crumbs, which is why they are trying to unionize the foundation.
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Shop NowThe foundation’s 2025 tax filing lists 172 employees earning more than $100,000 in salary, out of 342 reported employees. Chief executive Valerie Jarrett, a longtime adviser to former President Barack Obama, received total pay of about $771,000, up roughly $15,500 from 2024. Fox News Digital reports that at least four of the foundation’s 10 highest-paid executives have previous ties to the Obama White House or campaign.
Payroll and benefits reached $50.4 million in 2025, up from $18.5 million in 2018.
The foundation reported about $159 million in revenue last year, nearly $151 million of it from contributions and grants.
The spending growth came as the foundation raced to finish the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side, which opened in June and whose price tag Fox News Digital separately reported has reached $1 billion.
Fox compared the foundation with five other presidential nonprofits. In their most recent filings, the share of staff earning over $100,000 ranged from 37 percent at the George W. Bush Presidential Center to 10 percent at the George & Barbara Bush Foundation. All five reported lower CEO pay than Jarrett’s.
The foundation defended its pay practices. Emily Bittner, its vice president of communications, said the organization pays rates “competitive with the market” and that its board reviews executive compensation annually using comparability data and a compensation consultant. She said the foundation now has more than 500 employees worldwide, a figure larger than the one in the 2025 filing.
Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University accounting professor who studies nonprofit finances, said the share of six-figure earners is higher than at a typical nonprofit but reflects a specialized, think-tank-style workforce. He said pay at Jarrett’s level is common for an organization of the foundation’s size.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Bob Grogan accused the foundation of enriching Obama’s inner circle at taxpayers’ expense. The foundation says the center was privately funded, though public money has supported infrastructure around the campus.
Meanwhile, employees organizing as Obama Workers United with AFSCME Council 31 allege rolled-back benefits and mounting workloads. The foundation said it is “deeply committed” to workers’ right to organize.
