First lady Jill Biden got a raise at her faculty job at Northern Virginia Community College, where she teaches English.
The community college confirmed to The Daily Signal the first lady’s salary is $90,299. That’s up from the previous pay of $85,999 for her previously reported contract stretching from August 2021 to May 2022.
While not particularly high, the pay appears to be above industry standards for her peers. This comes as the incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives announced plans to investigate potential Biden family influence peddling.
The pay hike is reflective of the Virginia Community College System’s salary schedule for the 2022-2023 school year for Northern Virginia, according to the community college.
The state’s community college system pay scales are examined and adjusted each July by the VCCS State Board after a new state budget takes effect.
The first lady has a teaching schedule of 12 credit hours for each semester, a spokesperson for Northern Virginia Community College told The Daily Signal.
Jill Biden did not want the community college to publicize her employment, according to reporting from CBS News and The New York Times. Because of this, she is listed as “J. Tracy,” the Times reported. CBS reported she was also listed as simply “Jill T. Biden.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal for this story.
The community college spokesperson told The Daily Signal the first lady teaches 12 credit hours. The NVCC course catalog lists two courses, English 111, College Composition using the keyword “J. Tracy.” One is at the Alexandria campus, the other is a Zoom course. There are no courses listed under Biden.
According to the website Open Payrolls, in the 2020-2021 year, Biden earned 6.3% higher than the average pay for her coworkers as professors at the community college and made 22.1% more than the national average for government employees.
The Northern Virginia area is among the highest cost of living areas in the United States. The website also notes she earns 12.7% more than the average university or college professor.
According to Indeed, the average page for NVCC faculty is $67,143 per year. The higher end salaries are $87,171. However, Glassdoor reported media salaries for the community college at $103,775.
The Constitution’s emoluments clause legally prohibits a president from profiting from the office. But that doesn’t extend to family members.
After a review by the White House and in consultation with the community college, they determined she would be paid through the NOVA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that while associated with NVCC, does not receive any direct government funding.
“I am an English teacher at NOVA — not First Lady,” the first lady wrote to NVCC colleagues after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, CBS reported. “I am trying to keep my roles separate as I did as Second Lady. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I want students to see me as their English teacher. I am not mentioning it in my classes AT ALL. Thanks for honoring my teacher identity. Jill.”
The National Legal and Policy Center, a good government group, has consistently raised concerns about the lack of transparency for funding of the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware.
“If Jill Bident was making more than similarly situated members of faculty, it’s part of a pattern that it seems higher education has been very good to the Bidens,” Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, told The Daily Signal.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee should consider looking into aspects of this along with the bigger picture of the Biden family earnings, Flaherty added.
“The House committee should explore all the connections of higher education and the Biden family to see if there has been preferential treatment,” Flaherty said.