The annual salary of US President Barack Obama is $400,000 per annum, unlike many of the corporate executives from the Wall Street, whose annual salary runs into millions.
In addition to his taxable income of $400,000, the US President also receives additional allowance of $50,000 which is not taxable and is used for official purposes only.
At the current salary rate, he would receive a pension of $199,700 per annum.
The salary of the US president is determined by the annual appropriations act under the US Constitution, which says: "The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them."
This provision has been interpreted to apply to a president's current term of office. According to 'The General Principles of Constitutional Law in the United States of America', "an increase made after a president has been re-elected, but before the second term has begun, may apply to his salary during the second term."
It was on September 29, 1999 the then US President Bill Clinton had signed into law a legislation passed by both the Chambers of the US Congress -- the House of Representatives and the Senate -- to increase the salary of the US president from $2000,000.
The doubling of the salary of the US president was done after a gap of 30 years.
Under US laws, Obama's salary in his current term can not be increased. Any legislation to increase the salary of the 44th President during his current term would have to have been enacted prior to January 20, 2009, at noon, when the president was sworn in.
No legislation proposing such an increase was introduced in the 110th Congress. No legislation to increase the salary of the President who will assume office on January 20, 2013, has been introduced in the 111th Congress.
Historically the President's salary was established in 1789, when it was $25,000 and has been adjusted only five times since then -- in 1873 ($50,000), 1909 ($75,000), 1949 ($1000,000), 1969 ($200,000) and 1999 ($400,000).
Image: US President Barack Obama. Photograph: Reuters
