You Could Earn $0 Working for the White House

At the White House, David M. Kaden is a senior policy advisor, and Andrew Parker is a special assistant. Neither receive an official pay check signed by the President. They make $0 per annum. You could do it too!

At the White House, David M. Kaden is a senior policy advisor, and Andrew Parker is a special assistant. Neither receive an official pay check signed by the President. They make $0 per annum. You could do it too!

The White House released its annual report of staff salaries for 2012, and Parker and Kaden are the two people who make exactly no monies per annum. We tried to do a little digging and get a more specific idea of what they do, or what their killer side jobs must be, but had middling success. Parker's LinkedIn profile reveals he's a 2011 Stanford grad, a former president of the Standford Democrats, and former member of Students for Barack Obama. Currently he's a John Gardner Public Service Fellow with the Office of Public Engagement. Apparently taking no compensation for his work is part of his public service. We're still trying to figure how he could afford to live in D.C. And if you'll excuse us, we're going to go and cry for being put to shame by a 2011 grad who is financially comfortable enough to make absolutely nothing while working in the White House. Talk about feeling inadequate.  Kaden's profile reveals absolutely nothing, just that there is a David Kaden who works in public policy in the Metro D.C. area.

Plenty of other people do work and get paid for it, though. You could make $85,953 like Debra Brown, the White House's official calligrapher, or $50,000 like Jordan Brooks, the assistant to the chief of staff to the First Lady. There are 20 people tied for the distinction of highest paid White House staffer, and they're all some variation on the "Assistant to the President and __________" combination. Browse the official list here, if you'd like.