A fresh tax filing pulled back the curtain on pay inside the Obama Foundation — and the numbers landed just as the foundation’s own workers are organizing against their bosses. Fox News Digital reported October 17 on the nonprofit’s 2025 filing, which shows 172 of its 342 listed employees took home $100,000 or more. That’s roughly half the entire payroll clearing six figures.
The disclosure arrives at an awkward moment for an organization founded on the legacy of a president who once told workers he’d join a union himself. It also marks a striking escalation in the Obama Foundation union drive, a push by staffers who say their pay is frozen, their benefits are shrinking, and their complaints go nowhere.
The Numbers in the Filing
The foundation’s 2025 tax filing tells the story of an organization swimming in money at the top while many staffers say they’re squeezed at the bottom.
CEO Valerie Jarrett — the longtime Obama adviser who has led the foundation since 2021 — collected $771,000 in compensation. The total payroll-and-benefits bill hit $50.4 million in 2025. For context, that same line was $18.5 million back in 2018. Nearly triple in seven years.
The filing also shows the foundation sitting on more than $1 billion in net assets. Revenue came in around $159 million, with roughly $151 million of that from contributions and grants. The endowment stood at about $14.2 million.
None of this is illegal. Nonprofits of this size routinely pay competitive salaries, and the foundation would likely argue that six-figure compensation is the going rate for the talent it hires in Chicago and Washington. But the optics cut against the grain of the organization’s public identity. This is a foundation built around Barack Obama’s name — a president who championed working-class pay and union rights — and the tax filing now sits next to a growing labor revolt inside its own walls.
Obama Workers United
In early October 2026, the Obama Foundation union campaign went public. Calling themselves “Obama Workers United,” the group partnered with AFSCME Council 31 — the Illinois affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — and circulated an organizing letter carrying 68 signatories.
The campaign aims to represent more than 250 workers across the foundation’s operations: staff at the Chicago presidential center campus, offices in Washington, D.C., and remote roles spread elsewhere. That covers a large share of the roughly 342 employees reported in the filing.
Their grievances are specific and, frankly, sound like complaints from any mid-size workplace in 2026. Pay has been frozen, with no increases planned for this winter. Health care costs have climbed. Paid time off has been reduced. Promotions were suspended. Workloads got heavier. And turnover, workers say, has drained the place of institutional knowledge — the kind of quiet expertise that makes an organization actually function.
“Amidst increasing workloads we have seen our benefits rolled back and support from leadership to be minimal,” the organizing letter reads. That single sentence has been quoted widely because it lands so cleanly: a blunt description of doing more for less, signed by the people building the former president’s legacy project.
The Quote That Cuts Deepest
The workers’ letter includes one more flourish, and it’s the one everyone is talking about. The organizers closed a section of their letter with Barack Obama’s own words from 2016: “If I were looking for a good job that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union.”
It’s hard to imagine a more pointed choice. The Obama Foundation union campaign didn’t need a slogan writer — the former president handed them one a decade ago. The former president said that line during his time in office, during a Labor Day-era pitch for organized labor. Now his foundation’s workers are using his own sentence as the banner for their campaign against his foundation’s leadership.
Union organizers have pulled this move before — quoting a founder’s principles back at management is a classic labor tactic. But there’s something particularly sharp about it here, because the Obama brand has always been wrapped in the language of workers’ dignity and fair pay. The workers aren’t inventing a contradiction; they’re pointing at one that’s already there.
A Presidential Center With a Ballooning Budget
The union push also overlaps with long-running questions about the Obama Presidential Center itself. The center opened in June 2026 in Chicago’s Jackson Park, a sprawling campus that was supposed to anchor the foundation’s mission of civic engagement and youth leadership.
It also cost far more than planned. Early estimates put the project around $350 million. By the time the doors opened, the price tag had climbed to roughly $850 million — more than double the original projection.
Construction projects of this scale almost always run over budget, and the foundation would say the overruns came from ambition, not waste: a museum, public gardens, athletic facilities, and program space all take money. But for the workers watching their benefits roll back, the contrast is the story. Hundreds of millions flowed into concrete and steel in Jackson Park while pay raises froze and promotions stopped.
That’s the kind of juxtaposition that feeds an organizing campaign. Nobody has to argue the center shouldn’t exist. The workers’ point is simpler: if the money’s there for a $850 million campus, it’s there for the people who run the programs inside it.
What Happens Next in the Obama Foundation Union Fight
The Obama Foundation union effort now enters the hard part. Filing the paperwork and collecting 68 signatures is step one; winning recognition and then negotiating a first contract is a longer, grinding process. AFSCME Council 31 has deep experience in Illinois labor fights, which gives the workers professional backing they wouldn’t have on their own.
The foundation hasn’t conceded the campaign. Its public posture has been respectful but noncommittal — the standard nonprofit response: we value our employees, we hope to address concerns. Whether that turns into voluntary recognition or a drawn-out election fight remains to be seen.
One thing is clear: the tax filing changed the terrain. Before the numbers came out, this was a workplace dispute about benefits and workload. Now it’s a workplace dispute set against a $50.4 million payroll, a $771,000 CEO salary, and 172 six-figure earners — all at a foundation trading on a pro-worker legacy.
Why This One Matters Beyond Chicago
Nonprofit unionization has been climbing for years. Museum workers, newsroom staff, philanthropy employees — the same organizing wave that’s swept digital media and academia has been moving through the nonprofit world, where mission-driven workers have historically been expected to accept lower pay in exchange for meaningful work.
The Obama Foundation union fight could become the highest-profile test of that bargain. If workers at one of the country’s best-funded, most recognizable nonprofits successfully unionize over benefit cuts and frozen pay, every other foundation board in America will feel the tremor.
And there’s the politics of it, impossible to ignore. The same week the filing dropped, commentators across the spectrum noted the irony of a union drive inside the Obama orbit. Fox News Digital’s reporting leaned into the contrast between the foundation’s progressive brand and its compensation structure. The workers’ letter leaned into it too — from the other direction. Both sides, in a sense, are making the same argument: that what the foundation preaches about workers’ dignity should apply to the workers in its own building.
Sources and Resources
Obama Foundation Staff Push to Unionize Over Benefit Cuts — Capitalism Institute
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are Obama Foundation workers trying to unionize?
They say pay has been frozen with no increases planned this winter, health care costs are up, paid time off was reduced, promotions were suspended, and workloads keep growing while turnover strips the place of experienced staff. The Obama Foundation union drive, organized by the group “Obama Workers United,” filed an organizing letter in early October 2026 with 68 signatories and is working with AFSCME Council 31.
How many employees earned six figures at the Obama Foundation?
According to the foundation’s 2025 tax filing, reported by Fox News Digital on October 17, 172 of the 342 listed employees earned $100,000 or more — roughly half the reported payroll.
What did CEO Valerie Jarrett earn?
Jarrett, who has led the foundation since 2021, took home $771,000 in compensation. The foundation’s total payroll-and-benefits bill reached $50.4 million in 2025, up from $18.5 million in 2018.
What did Barack Obama say about unions that workers are quoting?
In 2016, Obama said: “If I were looking for a good job that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union.” The organizing letter quotes that line, turning the former president’s own words into the campaign’s rallying cry.
How much did the Obama Presidential Center cost?
The center, which opened in June 2026 in Chicago’s Jackson Park, cost roughly $850 million — more than double the early estimates of around $350 million. Workers have pointed to that spending as contrast with their frozen pay and shrinking benefits.
Conclusion
The Obama Foundation now faces a fight on two fronts: a public one over its tax filing numbers, and an internal one over its workers’ demands. The 172 six-figure salaries aren’t a scandal on their own — but paired with frozen pay, rolled-back benefits, and a workforce organizing under the banner of the founder’s own pro-union words, they’become one.
Whether the foundation recognizes the union or fights it will say a lot about how seriously the nonprofit world takes the labor standards it preaches. And the Obama Foundation union fight is far from over — winning recognition is step one; winning a first contract is the real prize. The workers, for their part, have already made their case in one devastating sentence: amidst increasing workloads, they’ve seen benefits rolled back and leadership support go minimal. That’s a story every worker in America understands.
The Obama Foundation union campaign has drawn national attention as a test case for nonprofit labor organizing. Supporters of the Obama Foundation union drive argue that the foundation’s progressive mission should extend to its own workplace practices, while the Obama Foundation union effort continues to build support among staff across Chicago and Washington.
For ongoing coverage of the Obama Foundation union, visit World Reach Daily.