No Pay Cut For Joe Biden Salary: Vice President Will Wait For Pay Reduction Until Staff Is Affected

Reuters reported that there would be no pay cuts just yet for Vice President’s Joe Biden’s salary. Unlike his boss and other colleagues, particularly Cabinet members, Vice President Joe Biden will hold off on taking a pay reduction. The salary pay cut he will accept in the near future is in solidarity with government workers affected by the sequestration budget cuts, Biden’s office said Friday.

America’s second-in-command will take a pay cut if and when his own staff are affected. According to a representative from the VP’s office, “The vice president is committed to sharing the burden of the sequester with his staff.”

President Barack Obama will take a 5 percent pay cut in 2013, which would be equal to $20,000, in a show of sympathy with federal employees.

Newly installed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will return the equivalent of 14 days’ pay, and the also recently confirmed Secretary of State John Kerry will donate 5 percent of his salary to charity.

Biden, however, is holding off for the time being. His pay cut plan is similar to what Attorney General Eric Holder is following. The Department of Justice said that Holder would take a cut equivalent to 14 days’ pay – the largest amount any Justice Department staffer would have to take under sequestration. Holder will do so once the sequestration cuts reach his employees.

The $85 billion in sequestration budget cuts were designed to be so severe in order that both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill would be forced to come to an agreement on issues to avoid them. They failed to do so, anyway.

The cuts were set in motion on March 1 but the effect on some government agencies is uncertain. Furloughs of some federal workers will also take time to kick in.