Author: Mike Monteiro / Source: USA TODAY
We know it pays to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company – does it also pay to be president of a country? Ask the men and women who are among the top paid world leaders.
Earning from just over $200,000 to more than $1.6 million, the yearly earnings of these heads of states far exceed the pay of the average citizen in their countries.
Generally, these countries tend to be among the wealthiest and most productive countries in the world. Although among the countries on this list, the leaders’ annual salaries are well above the country’s GDP per capita or average wages.24/7 Wall St. reviewed publicly available annual compensation figures to identify 20 of the highest-paid leaders in the world. We gathered information from country websites, as well as data from organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the CIA World Factbook.
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Salaries are expressed in U.S. dollars that were converted from country of origin currencies as of April 13, 2018. Leaders of absolute monarchies such as Qatar, Brunei Darussalam, and Saudi Arabia were excluded from our list due to a lack of consistent available data.
Constitutional monarchies were included, except where the highest ranking officials have the power to appoint the government. In such cases, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates, state leadership compensation often is not publicly disclosed.
20. Édouard Philippe
• Title: Prime Minister of France
• Annual salary (in USD): $220,505.00
• Time in office: 1 year, 10 months
• GDP per capita: $40,145.94
In France, President Emmanuel Macron, the head of state, holds more power than the head of government, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. Despite this, Philippe earns just as much as the French president. Both leaders make more than five times as much as France’s GDP per capita.
19. Jimmy Morales
• Title: President of the Republic of Guatemala
• Annual salary (in USD): $227,099
• Time in office: 3 years, 2 months
• GDP per capita: $7,421.29
Prior to becoming the president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales was a household name in Guatemala on the Guatemalan TV series “Moralejas” (“Morals”), where he starred alongside his brother. These days, Morales earns more than 30 times the economic output of a typical Guatemalan citizen.
18. Leo Varadkar
• Title: Taoiseach
• Annual salary (in USD): $234,447
• Time in office: 1 year, 9 months
• GDP per capita: $66,548.10
Leo Varadkar is the Taoiseach of Ireland. Taoiseach is an Irish word of Ancient origin meaning “leader” and is used in the Irish Constitution for “the head of the Government or Prime Minister. As Taoiseach, Varadkar earns more than four and a half times the average wage of Irish citizens.
17. Katrín Jakobsdóttir
• Title: Prime Minister of Iceland
• Annual salary (in USD): $242,619
• Time in office: 1 year, 4 months
• GDP per capita: $49,704.76
If Katrín Jakobsdóttir’s salary as the prime minister of Iceland were to be shared across the nation, each Icelandic citizen would receive the equivalent of 73 cents. While the president has a higher base pay than the prime minister in Iceland, the president has limited powers and the role is largely ceremonial as a diplomat and figurehead.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Jakobsdóttir is the highest ranking official within Iceland’s government. Prior to joining the Icelandic government, she had a career in both Icelandic media and academia, where she lectured at various universities in Reykjavík.
16. Stefan Löfven
• Title: Prime Minister of Sweden
• Annual salary (in USD): $244,615
• Time in office: 4 years, 6 months
• GDP per capita: $46,519.75
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven began his career as a welder, but he quickly ascended into politics when he became his group’s trade union representative two years into his career. Decades later, in 2005, he became the chairman of the major trade union IF Metall. It was not long before he became the leader of the largest political party in Sweden – Swedish Social Democratic Party – and subsequently elected prime minister.
15. Lars Løkke Rasmussen
• Title: Prime Minister of Denmark
• Annual salary (in USD): $249,774
• Time in office: 3 years, 9 months
• GDP per capita: $46,329.81
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has an annual salary of the equivalent of nearly $13.5 million. She is not, however, an elected official – Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen is. Rasmussen makes a comparatively modest $249,774 a year.
14. Adrian Hasler
• Title: Prime Minister of the Principality of Liechtenstein
• Annual salary (in USD): $254,660
• Time in office: 6 years
• GDP per capita: N/A
With an annual pay of $254,660, Prime Minister Adrian Hasler is a former banker who worked for VP Bank AG, where the salary of the average employee is $128,648. Hasler was a division head there.
13. Charles Michel
• Title: Prime Minister of Belgium
• Annual salary (in USD): $262,964
• Time in office: 4 years, 5 months
• GDP per capita: $42,497.40
Prime…
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