The government employee who is set to receive the biggest federal retirement package in U.S. history recently announced he will retire by January 2025 at the latest.
In a wide-ranging interview with Politico published Monday, the well-known Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, confirmed he will step down by the end President Joe Biden’s first (and possibly only) term.
“We’re in a pattern now. If somebody says, ‘You’ll leave when we don’t have Covid anymore,’ then I will be 105. I think we’re going to be living with this,” Fauci told Politico when asked whether he is staying in his role out of a sense of obligation.
His admission about not staying on past President Biden’s first term immediately sparked questions about his retirement date from a variety of national media outlets.
When he does in fact retire, Dr. Fauci is on track to receive retirement benefits from the federal government exceeding $350,000 per year
Fauci told CNN on Monday that though his comments on retirement were interpreted as announcing a retirement plan, he just meant “that it is extremely unlikely—in fact, for sure—that I am not going to be here beyond January 2025.”
The 81-year-old told NPR that he does not have an exact date in mind for his decision but that it may come “sooner rather than later,” adding that he’s not sure what he will do after leaving his position partially because he hasn’t decided when he will be leaving.
“I plan to step down from my current position sometime between now and then and to go on and pursue other directions in my professional career,” Fauci told NPR. “That has somehow been interpreted as my announcing my retirement. When I do decide on the date of stepping down I will make a formal announcement.”
When he does in fact retire, Dr. Fauci is on track to receive retirement benefits from the federal government exceeding $350,000 per year after his (currently) 55 years of working for the government, according to a Forbes article from the end of last year. Forbes auditors at OpenTheBooks.com said Dr. Fauci’s retirement benefits would be the largest in U.S. history.
His pension and benefits would continue to increase through annual cost-of-living adjustments.
Forbes noted that Fauci’s big salary boost came in 2004 under the George W. Bush Administration when he received a “permanent pay adjustment” for his biodefense work to “appropriately compensate him for the level of responsibility.” From 2004 through 2007, Fauci received a 68% pay increase from $200,000 to $335,000 per year.
He was the single highest-paid federal employee for the second consecutive year in 2021, earning more than President Joe Biden and roughly 4.3 million other government workers. As director of the NIAID, Fauci earned $434,312 in 2020, the latest year available, up from $417,608 in 2019 and $399,625 in 2018.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management says federal employees with Fauci’s length of service can retire to earn 80% percent of their highest 3-year average salary, plus credit for their sick leave. While admitting his (as yet unavailable) 2021 and 2022 salaries are likely higher, using his 2018-2020 salaries, Forbes auditors calculated that if he’d retired at the end of FY 2020, he’d receive a federal pension of $333,745 a year, plus cost-of-living increases.
He’s also likely eligible for an annuity paid by the government, as after serving 10 years, federal employees are eligible for a payment of 2% of their high 3-year average salary. Forbes said that would add at least an extra $8,344 a year.
Dr. Fauci, who became a household name during the coronavirus pandemic, has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, working under every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan. In addition to serving as the director of NIAID, he was the first director of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of AIDS Research when it was established in 1988.
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